In sentence 1, I would prefer using past continuous (he was holding the hand ...), because using past simple will make it sounds like he held some white girl's hand habitually. (Note: If you change because to after, I think held will be more appropriate. It should also be even more appropriate than past perfect, in my opinion.)
To explain why using past continuous (or past progressive) is preferred, here is the closest entry I can find in Practical English Usage by Michael Swan.
422 past (2): past progressive (I was working etc)
3 past progressive and simple past: 'background' events
We often use the past progressive together with a simple past tense. The past progressive refers to a longer 'background' action or situation; the simple past refers to a shorter action or event that happened in the middle of the longer action, or that interrupted it.
As I was walking down the road, I saw Bill.
The phone rang while I was having dinner.
Mozart died while he was composing the Requiem.
In sentence 2, if you have this sentence alone:
Fans (queued/were queuing) overnight at a Hollywood music shop for the chance to get Lady Gaga's autograph.
I would say that either queued or were queuing can be used, depending on the way you want to narrate the scene. If you were a journalist writing it as a news, I think using queued would be more appropriate. However, if you were an anchor reporting the news, using were queuing would be more appropriate. This is because, according to my observation, TV news anchors usually use progressive tenses to arouse our attention, to make us feel as if we were in the scene of the news they are reporting.
However, when you gave the full passage,
Fans (queued/were queuing) overnight at a Hollywood music shop for the chance to get Lady Gaga's autograph. While they were waiting, Gaga saw their tweets. She immediately ordered 80 takeaway pizzas and sent them to her fans in case they were hungry.
I changed my preference to queued immediately. The reason is because it will provide the background (or the first reference time [ref.], if you prefer) for the whole story. Besides, there is already one use of the past progressive (... they were waiting, ...) as the main event of the whole story, which is sufficient for a news report.
Context, context, context!
Briefly: the simple past is used to narrate past events. The present perfect is used to mention past events which give rise to a present state which is of present interest.
The children played in the sandbox for a while, then moved to the swings. At four o'clock their mother called them inside because it looked like rain.
The children have played in the sandbox and left their toys there. Tell them to go bring their toys inside.
However, the second could also be expressed with a simple past, and would probably be expressed with a past progressive. Play is an activity verb, which doesn't accommodate the perfect all that well. This example, with a telic verb (one which has a distinct change of state in its meaning) may be more instructive.
The children finished their chores, then went outside to play until their mother called them in.
The children have finished their chores; I am going to let them go outside and play now.
Best Answer
Yes, these can make sense.
You wouldn't generally expect people to say "What did you do this week?" on a Monday morning. But if you are speaking with someone on a Friday night--or a Saturday or Sunday--the mention of "this week" in the past generally refers to the "work week" (Monday thru Friday).
But it could also be used with something recurring, where the recurring thing being discussed has finished...but you are still "in the same week" to refer to it as "this week".
Imagine you are taking a class that has a session every Wednesday. You could say "I just finished class" and someone could ask "What did you do this week?"--meaning "What happened during your class in this week's session?"
Imagine that you had not finished your homework for one of those classes you have sessions for once a week.
Now it is the next class. As you hand your homework in, you might tell the teacher "I finished my homework this week!" (to say you did a better job...this time).