Peggy Allen Towns is a local historian of African American history. A native of Decatur, Alabama, her passion is preserving the voices and legacy of African Americans in her home town. She lectures and facilitates workshops on genealogy, local people and historical places. She is dedicated to identifying historic places, and as a result of her efforts, several sites have been listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage and the National Register of Historic Places. She has done extensive research documenting her family's history, which led to the discovery of a relative who served with the 110th United States Colored Infantry and the writing of her first book, Duty Driven: The Plight of North Alabama's African Americans During the Civil War. Her second book Scottsboro Unmasked: Decatur's Story tells about the Scottsboro Boys trials. It is the first of its genre to tell how this two landmark Supreme Court ruling case affected locals in Decatur, the site for all trials but the first.