This
is a shocking story of how two little black kids were tortured and
imprisoned over being voluntary kissed on a cheek by a white girl.
In 1958, two African American boys were playing with friends in the White section of their North Carolina town. It was an innocent time in their lives. James Hanover Thompson was 9 and David Simpson was 7 years old at the time.
While playing, a friend suggested that one of the little white girls they were playing with give the two boys a kiss- and she did. James told NPR.org, “The little girl gave me a peck on the check and then she kissed David on the check. So, we didn’t think nothing of it. We were just little kids.”
What happened next will blow your mind. The little girl went home and casually mentioned the kiss to her parents, who became furious and called the police.
The two young boys were eventually detained and charged with rape and later molestation.
The night they were hauled off to jail, they were badly beaten by police officers; and the officers made sure only to hit the boys upon their bodies. James stated, “They didn’t beat us to the face, where nobody could see it; they just punched us all in the stomach and back and legs. We was hollering and screaming. We thought they was gonna kill us.”
The two boys weren’t allowed to see their mothers for weeks, but their case soon caught the attention of the media and an international committee was formed in Europe to defend the children.
Joyce Egginton a London based journalist, was granted an interview with the boys. She smuggled a camera into the jail and brought their mothers along. There she took pictures of the women hugging their sons and published the story in the London Observer. Soon the story spread throughout Europe and Asia, which embarrassed the United States.
In the interim, the boys were sentenced to reform school until their 21st birthdays.
The boys were eventually pardoned by the Governor after spending three months in detention. They never received an apology.
Their lives and the lives of their families were subsequently ruined. James’s mother was a nervous wreck while her son was locked up. Her daughter Brenda recalls, “She didn’t sleep. She would be up walking the floors and praying.”
Also, the family faced further tοrture as the KKK regularly visited the family’s home and burned crosses on their front lawn. They also occasionally shot at their house. “My mom and them, they would go out in the morning and sweep bullets off our front porch,” Brenda further stated.
James and David have never spoken about what happened to them in the prison - the memories were too painful to bear. But their lives were forever turned upside down with James spending most of his life in and out of prison.
James told NPR.org, “I always sit around and I wonder, if this hadn’t happened to me, you know, what could I have turned out to be? Could I have been a doctor? Could I have went off to some college, or some great school? It just destroyed my life.”
There is no word on the outcome of the youngest victim, David Simpson.
In 1958, two African American boys were playing with friends in the White section of their North Carolina town. It was an innocent time in their lives. James Hanover Thompson was 9 and David Simpson was 7 years old at the time.
While playing, a friend suggested that one of the little white girls they were playing with give the two boys a kiss- and she did. James told NPR.org, “The little girl gave me a peck on the check and then she kissed David on the check. So, we didn’t think nothing of it. We were just little kids.”
What happened next will blow your mind. The little girl went home and casually mentioned the kiss to her parents, who became furious and called the police.
The two young boys were eventually detained and charged with rape and later molestation.
The night they were hauled off to jail, they were badly beaten by police officers; and the officers made sure only to hit the boys upon their bodies. James stated, “They didn’t beat us to the face, where nobody could see it; they just punched us all in the stomach and back and legs. We was hollering and screaming. We thought they was gonna kill us.”
The two boys weren’t allowed to see their mothers for weeks, but their case soon caught the attention of the media and an international committee was formed in Europe to defend the children.
Joyce Egginton a London based journalist, was granted an interview with the boys. She smuggled a camera into the jail and brought their mothers along. There she took pictures of the women hugging their sons and published the story in the London Observer. Soon the story spread throughout Europe and Asia, which embarrassed the United States.
In the interim, the boys were sentenced to reform school until their 21st birthdays.
The boys were eventually pardoned by the Governor after spending three months in detention. They never received an apology.
Their lives and the lives of their families were subsequently ruined. James’s mother was a nervous wreck while her son was locked up. Her daughter Brenda recalls, “She didn’t sleep. She would be up walking the floors and praying.”
Also, the family faced further tοrture as the KKK regularly visited the family’s home and burned crosses on their front lawn. They also occasionally shot at their house. “My mom and them, they would go out in the morning and sweep bullets off our front porch,” Brenda further stated.
James and David have never spoken about what happened to them in the prison - the memories were too painful to bear. But their lives were forever turned upside down with James spending most of his life in and out of prison.
James told NPR.org, “I always sit around and I wonder, if this hadn’t happened to me, you know, what could I have turned out to be? Could I have been a doctor? Could I have went off to some college, or some great school? It just destroyed my life.”
There is no word on the outcome of the youngest victim, David Simpson.
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