Sixty-five years ago, police in Monroe, North Carolina, arrested, jailed, and beat two Black children after a white girl kissed them on the cheek. The lives of the two boys—James Thompson and David Simpson—and their families were shattered and the entire Black community was traumatized. Still today, no one—no local or state officials or the media—has ever apologized to Mr. Thompson or Mr. Simpson or their families, or compensated them for violating their rights. "I always sit around and wonder if this hadn’t happened to me, you know, what could I have turned out to be?" Mr. Thompson later told his brother. "It just destroyed our life.”