The Scottsboro Boys were a group of nine Black teenagers who were falsely accused of raping a white woman. The trials that followed this accusation were long and attracted quite a bit of attention from the general public, and the entire event drastically altered each defendant’s life. Although several of the teenagers eventually went on to lead rewarding lives outside of prison, the entire ordeal largely ruined the defendants’ lives. The fact that Godfrey references the Scottsboro Boys underscores just how frightened he is of the harsh reality of racism in the United States—so frightened, it seems, that he doesn’t want to take any chances, instead opting to avoid white people as much as possible. Even just helping Jewish neighbors by turning on electrical appliances on the Sabbath (a day when many Jewish people refrain from using modern technology) seems potentially sinister to a Black man living under the constant threat of racist aggression.