# data[].attributes.body
Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy who got beaten to death for flirting with a white woman. The woman's husband and brother came after Till. Till was beaten to death, tied to a cotton gin,and thrown into the river. Till's mother wanted an open casket so everyone could see how bad her son was murdered. The killers of Till did not get charged with anything because the white jury claimed there wasn't enough evidence to prove that it was Till's body. The court ruling in favor of the defendants, despite clear evidence connecting them to the crime just shows the mindset in place that the white race is superior in this time and white men could do anything they deemed necessary without getting in trouble for it. This case is shares a common ground with the North Carolina Kissing Case, in the sense that both involved African American youths, getting severe punishments for innocent behaviors. It is just unfortunate that Emmett Till's case was one of extreme, twisted "justice"

Of course, at the time, the case was perceived in a different light. North Carolina was a merciful hand that showed kindness to its African American citizens. Mississippi may have let such brutal acts occur, but North Carolina would let justice live in the courts, where it belonged. Of course this veneer of kindness was untrue entirely. While the victims of the kissing case survived, they were severely beaten, abused physically and mentally, and had their rights as American citizens defiled. But for those alive at the time, when comparing the two cases at face value without knowing the full extent of the kissing case malpractices, many would rule that North Carolina made a good choice in incarcerating two innocent black children as opposed to killing them with mob justice. This kind of pattern can be seen with other cases in North Carolina such as the Pearsall Plan with regards to integrated learning. On the surface, it was a law that allowed African American families to apply their children to formerly white only schools. But the law put the decision into the school's hands, meaning it was still impossible for black children to learn alongside white children. Through acts like these, North Carolina proves its behavior of oppressing African Americans while pretending that they are the embodiment of justice itself.

# data[].attributes.body
Here, the NAACP attempted to get the two boys released from the training facility they were sent to after previously being sentenced to life. Conrad Lynn, who was the NAACP lawyer for this case, argued that the boys were not given a free trial, held in jail for six days with no formal charges, and were given operate hearings from the white girls they were accused of kissing. The fact that there were separate hearings for the families suggests that the law was in complete opposition to the two boys. As mentioned in the article, this decision robbed the defendants of their ability to actually defend themselves. It is also noted that the NAACP will be relocating the families of the defendants. Such an action would only be necessary in the situation that the families were in danger of some sort. Given that requirement, it is clear that the negro friendly North Carolina is not friendly whatsoever.
In summary, justice was not a concern for North Carolina. Governor Hodges and the state government as a whole were two faced entities, a deceptive poison to African Americans. North Carolina could be seen as the more tolerant state with regards to civil rights when in reality, they were just as toxic to the American ideal as any intolerant state. Only when pressured to rectify their wrongdoings did North Carolina release the children. According to the interview with NPR shown above, they could have been held in this "reform school" that they suffered in until they were 21 if there was no intervention. Today, while not well known, the Kissing Case embodies the true attitude that North Carolina had toward its own citizens, one of resentment and hatred towards those who were African American.

# data[].attributes.body
NPR conducted an interview with James Hanover Thompson, one of the victims of the so called "kissing case". James sheds a light upon the case that was previously unknown. He reveals to the American public the abuse that he and his friend  suffered at the hands of the police and the state government at the supposed "reformatory school" that they were sent to. The girl that kissed James and David had told her parents about what happened later that night. The parents in turn reported a rape to the police. When apprehended, the boys were interrogated and beaten by the police. After six days of torment at the hands of those supposed to protect them, they briefly saw their parents before being sent to a reform school.  While a great deal about the reform school is not expounded upon in the interview, examples can be found at the terrible treatment that they experienced. One includes James recalling a therapist saying that the boys should be castrated as punishment. A good analogy of just exactly what this reform school was would be a modern day juvenile hall, one that felt free to abuse their charges in their care. One remarkable detail is the aftermath of what happened to the boys. James did not have a life of ease after the case. The article mentions that for the majority of his life, James has been through the prison system for robbery, obviously a result of the severe trauma that occurred. Even James remarks "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 our life."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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 to Monroe, N.C., 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.

"One of the little kids suggested that one of the little white girls give us a kiss on the jaw," he says. "The little girl gave me a peck on the cheek, and then she kissed David on the cheek. So, we didn't think nothing of it. We were just little kids."

But the little girl mentioned the kiss back home, and her parents were furious; the police set out in search of the boys.

"The police car pulled up, and they said, 'We're taking y'all to jail,'" James says. "I didn't know what was going on. But when we got down to the police station, we understand that they said that we had raped a little white girl."

The two boys - James, 9, and David, 7 - were charged with molestation. And their punishment started immediately.

"They uh... took us down in the bottom of the police station to a cell. And they had us handcuffed - they started beating us," James says. "They was beating us to our body, you know? 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."

James says that he and David were held in jail for about six days before they were allowed to see their parents. And soon after, they were sent to reform school, with the possibility that they might be released before they turned 21.

News reports of the case spread far and wide - it became the "Kissing Case" in many headlines. Officials from the NAACP and Eleanor Roosevelt were among those who reportedly asked North Carolina Gov. Luther Hodges to show clemency in the case.

Eventually, the governor pardoned James and David, and they were released after spending three months in detention.

James' sister, Brenda Lee Graham, also spoke about those days with Dwight, who was born in 1961, and grew up not knowing much about the incident.

"Mom was a nervous wreck. She didn't sleep," Brenda tells Dwight. "She would be up walking the floors and praying."

Remembering what life was like for the rest of the family while the authorities were holding James, Brenda says, "I remember that at night, you could see them burning crosses..."

"Right there in the front yard?" Dwight asks.

"Right there in the front yard," Brenda says. "And my mom and them, they would go out in the morning, and sweep bullets off our front porch."

James says that each week during his detention, he was sent to a psychologist. "And he'd tell me, 'They should have castrated y'all.' I mean, it was just something," he says.

Brenda says that when James came back home, "it was like seeing somebody different, that you didn't even know. He never talked about what he went through there. But ever since then, his mind just hadn't been the same."

And, James says, while he and David were pardoned, they never got an apology, either.

"I still feel the hurt and the pain from it," he says. "And nobody never said, 'Hey, look, I'm sorry what happened to y'all. It was wrong.'"

He has spent most of his adult life in and out of prison for robbery.

"I always sit around and I wonder, if this hadn't happened to me, you know, what could I have turned out to be?" James says. "Could I have been a doctor? Could I have went off to some college, or some great school? It just destroyed our life."

Brenda says, "My brother and his friend had to suffer on account of that. And I mean, they suffered. From one kiss. I've thought about that. It all started with a kiss."

Audio produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'The Kissing Case' And The Lives It Shattered

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.body
Two boys in Raleigh, North Carolina, ages 8 and 9 were sentenced to life for kissing a white girl. Such a severe sentencing for something so small shows the intensity of the racial barrier present in the late 1950s. For contextual purposes, The life sentence is something given to a murderer in today's society. Kissing a white girl as an African American back then is essentially equivalent to murder. The boys were eventually freed and placed into "training school." It is interesting to think about how much their young ages saved them from even more severe punishment though. Despite the fact that they had not even reached puberty yet, these children were given severe sentences. Gastonia Gazette's "NAACP to Seek Freedom for Two Kissing Youths" mentions the parents being able to release the children when they are "willing and able" to properly care for the children. These supposed training facilities were viewed as a light sentence that benefited the boys and the community. However, it is fair to question what these "benefits" are. One could argue that the benefit gained by the community is the boys no longer being present in the neighborhood. This would then make the claim of the parents not yet being willing and able to have their children freed seem like a front created by the state to quiet those yammering for the freedom of the boys. The boys were not even given a fair trial apparently Another questionable aspect in regards to the leniency of the revised sentencing is what the training facility actually entails. The two boys who were detained for kissing the white girls were interviewed about the ordeal many years later by NPR.com, and one of the boys, now a man, named James Hanover Thompson, says that he had to see a psychologist every week. This psychologist, meant to help the children learn from their supposed mistakes, was claimed to have been telling James that he and his friend David both should have been castrated. This is the only glimpse into the time spent at the "training facility" that was given. However, this indicates that verbal abuse from the employees was definitely happening in the facility. Brenda, James' sister, states in the interview that James never said anything about what went on during his time in the facility after he was released. The horrors they must have faced were bad enough to be rendered unspeakable. The Gastonia Gazette article also points out that the boys did not get a fair trial, which was not expressed in "Negro Case Clarified." Knowing this, it becomes apparent that the decision to remove the life sentence and place the boys into a training facility was nothing more than a move to save face and appear as a "fair" decision a hot button topic. It was surely a much more acceptable outcome than the Emmett Till case that occurred three years earlier. The decision to give these children any kind of punishment for what was revealed to be a kiss on the cheek from the girls showed the real North Carolina, rather than the "negro friendly" place it claimed to be.