Biography
David 'Fuzzy' Simpson was a seven-year-old boy arrested with nine-year-old Hanover Thompson in the 1958 'Kissing Case' in Monroe, North Carolina, after a white girl kissed Thompson during a game. Charged with 'attempted rape,' the two children were jailed and committed to the Morrison Training School for an indeterminate term. A worldwide outcry and the NAACP's Robert F. Williams secured their release in early 1959.
The Equal Justice Initiative identifies J. Hampton Price as the juvenile judge who committed Thompson and Simpson to the Morrison Training School, and Walter Johnston as the judge who denied relief at a separate January 12, 1959 hearing. Its account dates the original commitment to November 3, 1958, differing from November 4 reported elsewhere. It records a February 13, 1959 pardon followed by their return to their families, without separately dating the physical discharge.
