On Wednesday, April 12, 2023, the Department of African American Studies would like to welcome Dr. Quincy Mills, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History, for his lecture titled, "'The Comrades Gave Me Money to Buy Things to Eat': The Scottsboro Boys, Their Mothers, and the Crisis of Economy in the 1930s".

Mills will explore the mass fundraising to support the legal defense fund to get the Scottsboro boys out of jail. While racial injustice was the glaring crisis, in its shadows were people who needed safety nets. The boys and their mothers, whose well-being languished during this ordeal, laid claims to financial relief which expanded the boundaries of a defense fund and opens a window onto the makings of an activist economy. This event will be in person.