Haywood Patterson, with the assistance of Earl Conrad, wrote Scottsboro Boy more than a decade after he was tried four times in one of the most notorious and racially controversial cases of the early twentieth century. Nine African American youths were charged with raping two white women while all of them were riding on a train. All but one were quickly sentenced to death, and the case attracted international attention. Both the Communists and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People wanted to defend the boys, but ultimately the Communists took the case, through their legal arm, International Labor Defense.