Alva Review-Courier -

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Sixteen-year-old Sylvester James Jr. was set on taking Ann Brennan to his junior prom at Bishop Hogan High in the spring of 1968. The Notre Dame de Sion sophomore, whom he met at one of his rock band's shows, was cute, lively, "a great girl," in his words.

She was also white, and the daughter of Kansas City Councilman Frank Brennan. James didn't want any drama in pulling up to her home. So "Syl," as friends knew him then, handed over his tuxedo to a white classmate and asked him to pick her up.

"I didn't want her to have repercussions. I didn't want to have repercu...