Falsehood Outruns Truth in "Kissing Case"

Title of the Document: Falsehood Outruns Truth in "Kissing Case"
One Line Summary: This is part of a newspaper article from 1959 published by the Asheville
Citizen-Times. It highlights the reality of the “Kissing Case” and challenges the factual details.
Author: Asheville Citizen-Times
Date Created: February 25, 1959
Location: Asheville, North Carolina
Type of Document: Newspaper Article
Publisher: Asheville Citizen-Times
Transcription: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1959
Falsehood Outruns Truth In “Kissing Case”

In no single instance has North Carolina been so unjustly defamed by witlings and propagandists as in the recent so-called kissing case of Union County. Letters from Paris friends tell Asheville people of the sensational and distorted reports published about the case in French newspapers. Governor Hodges has been swamped by a heavy volume of mail critical of this state for "imprisoning" two small Negro boys because of a "prank." The case is held up as a glaring example of North Carolina's inhumanity in race relations. The falsity of that is known to those familiar with North Carolina's fruitful concern over bettering the lot of the Negro and improving relations between the races. The race and Communist press, however, blew the case into something bearing little or no resemblance to the facts–evidence that lies can outrun the truth.

The facts essentially and briefly are these: Last Oct. 28 two Negro boys, James Han-, over Thompson, aged 9, and David E. Simpson, 8, joined three young white girls at play at the mouth of a culvert under Harvard Street at Monroe in Union County. The two boys trapped the girls in the culvert, telling them the price of escape was a lass. Two girls escaped without paying the price, while the third girl, 7, kissed or was kissed by Hanover Thompson.

Later that day the boys were picked up by Monroe police on warrants charging assault on a female. After hearings, Juvenile Judge J. Hampton Price made the boys wards of the state and sent them to the Morrison Training School at Hoffman in order to seek correction of a specific problem of delinquency. The kissing incident, the record shows, was merely the climax of a series of cases. Since April 22, 1958, the two boys had been before the Juvenile Court judge on nine other different occasions on charges involving breaking and entering, attempted breaking and entering and larceny.

In each of the previous cases the boys were put on probation and returned to the custody of their mothers, even though evidence showed poor home environment. Agitators saw a great opportunity when news of the case was carried in the nation's press. They formed the Committee to Combat Racial Injustice and raised an estimated $15,-000 for the ostensible purpose of aiding the boys. Evidence indicates, however, that this organization is a Communist-directed "front" group, with the money being used to finance a propaganda campaign. There is nothing to show that any of the money so far has been used directly in behalf of the boys.
This Committee and its work have proved to be embarrassing to the NAACP whose leaders are concerned over a possibility of identification with communism. None the less, NAACP leaders in this state did not exhibit zeal in behalf of truth-finding and setting the record straight. On the plus side, they did aid the Thompson and Simpson families, moving these to Charlotte where they were placed in decent apartments and supplied with food and clothing. Thus was started the task of placing the families in a position to provide suitable environments for their children. The case was concluded for the present when it was found by officials of the Training School that the two boys had made satisfactory progress in their behavior, attitude and personal conduct and that the home and family situations had improved to such an extent as to justify release.

The boys are now in the custody of their mothers in Charlotte, a condition being that they receive proper care and guidance. The entire case had unfortunate repercussions. Press, radio and TV compounded the error by failing generally to give it adequate. backgrounding. In instances where background was supplied, it was so far down in news accounts some papers did not use it.

The NAACP in North Carolina should be on guard as to its associations, the causes it espouses, the degree of its militancy. If it doesn't, it'll be dubbed more often than not the National Association for the Agitation of Colored People.
Related: James Hanover Thompson
David E. Simpson
J. Hampton Price.
Governor Hodges.
The mothers of James Hanover Thompson and David E. Simpson.
The three young white girls involved in the incident.
The Monroe police.
The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
Provenance: "Falsehood Outruns Truth In 'Kissing Case.'" Ashville Citizen-Times, February 25, 1959.