Benjamin Meek Miller (March 13, 1864 – February 6, 1944) was an American Democratic politician who served as the 39th Governor of Alabama from 1931 to 1935. The Scottsboro Boys affair notably occurred during his gubernatorial tenure. Early life Miller was born in Oak Hill, Wilcox County, Alabama, on March 13, 1864, to Rev. John Miller, D.D., and Sarah Pressly Miller. His father was pastor of the Bethel Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church at Oak Hill for 31 years. His mother was a descendant of the Hearst family of Abbeville County, South Carolina. He received his early education in Oak Hill and Camden, Alabama. He entered Erskine College, graduating in 1884. While a student at Erskine, he was a member of the Euphemian Literary Society. Upon his graduation from Erskine, he returned to Wilcox County, where he served as principal of the Lower Peach Tree Academy until 1887. He graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1889. After graduating from law school, he established a law practice in Camden. On September 21, 1892, he married Margaret Otis Duggan of Mobile, Alabama. In 1890, he was a founding member of the Camden Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Miller was an avid reader. While governor, he read numerous books in categories as wide-ranging as science fiction, drama, romance, and history. He read Patrol by Philip MacDonald, The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs, A People's Man and Mysterious Mr. Sabin by E. Phillips Oppenheim, The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, The Battle to the Weak by Hilda Vaughan, Beau Geste by P. C. Wren, Witch Wood by John Buchan as well as the trilogy of The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle and Mr Standfast by John Buchan while he was governor. He was particularly interested in British literature. Miller also read pulp science fiction, including the 1925 edition of Weird Tales magazine, in which he referenced reading the story "The Temple" by H.P. Lovecraft. He welcomed Olympic gold medalists Richard Beesly, John Lander, Edward Vaughan Bevan and Michael Warriner to the University of Alabama to promote rowing at that school, all four of whom had competed for the United Kingdom in the 1928 Summer Olympics. Political life Miller represented Wilcox County in the Alabama House of Representatives from 1888 to 1889. He was elected judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Alabama in 1904 and served until 1921. Miller