'The Kissing Case' And The Lives It Shattered : NPR

'The Kissing Case' And The Lives It Shattered : NPR: In 1958, James Hanover Thompson and his friend David Simpson — both African-American, both children — were accused of kissing a girl who was white. They were arrested, and taken to jail. Prosecutors sought a stiff penalty — living in reform school until they were 21.

'The Kissing Case,' as it came to be known, drew international media attention at the time. But since then, it's been largely forgotten. Even the Thompson family rarely talked about it. Recently, James Hanover Thompson sat down with his younger brother, Dwight, and told him what happened.

'We were playing with some friends over in the white neighborhood, chasing spiders and wrestling and stuff like that,' James says.