Kissing Case

The young boys James Thompson and David Simpson with Kelly Alexander of the NAACP in Wadesboro, North Carolina, in January 1959

The Kissing Case was the arrest, conviction and lengthy sentencing of two prepubescent African-American boys in 1958 in Monroe, North Carolina. A white girl kissed each of them on the cheek and later told her mother, who accused the boys of rape. The boys were then charged by authorities with molestation. Civil rights activists became involved in representing the boys. The boys were arrested in October 1958, separated from their parents for a week, beaten and threatened by investigators, then sentenced by a Juvenile Court judge.[1]

Leaders and members of the local NAACP, including Robert F Williams, Eleanor Roosevelt, President Eisenhower, and other civil rights organizations, such as the New York-based The Committee to Combat Racial Injustice (CCRI), protested the charges, trial and sentencing. The United States was embarrassed by protests from other governments, demonstrations in major cities, and strong criticism in the international press. North Carolina Governor Luther H. Hodges finally granted clemency to the boys, releasing them from the reformatory in early 1959 after they had been there for three months.[2] Neither he nor authorities in Monroe ever officially apologized to the boys or their families.

  1. ^ Sue Sturgis (April 25, 2014), "Remembering Southern Black freedom fighter Mabel Williams", Facing South, Institute of Southern Studies, retrieved January 19, 2017
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference CCRI_1958 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).