As a youth, Mills learned about his roots through his frequent visits to a collection of books on African-American culture and history located on the second floor of a building on 135th Street, a collection that was later placed in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
This was a position that his daughter described as having "brought out the art in him" and Mills would go on to spend two decades designing and illustrating medical books.
[2] His mural at the entrance to Sistrunk Boulevard in his adopted home town, commissioned by the City of Fort Lauderdale, have been considered his greatest work, telling the story of the African-American experience from slavery to modern times.
[1] Mills died at age 88 on October 20, 2009, at a hospice in Pembroke Pines, Florida.
He was survived by his wife, Thelma, as well as by two daughters Renee Chester and Denise Collins, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.