J. B. Matthews
| J.B. Matthews | |
|---|---|
J.B. Matthews testifies before Dies Committee on August 22, 1938
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| Born |
June 28, 1894 Hopkinsville, Kentucky |
| Died | July 16, 1966 (aged 72) New York City |
| Cause of death | Brain tumor |
| Education |
Asbury College (1914) Drew University (1923) Columbia University (1924) |
| Spouse(s) |
Grace Ison (m. 1917) Ruth E. Shallcross (m. 1936) Ruth Inglis (m. 1949) |
Joseph Brown "Doc" Matthews, Sr. (1894–1966), best known as J. B. Matthews, was an American linguist, educator, writer, and political activist. A committed pacifist, he became a self-described "fellow traveler" of the Communist Party, USA in the middle-1930s, achieving national prominence as a leader of a number of the party's so-called "mass organizations." Disillusionment with communism led to anti-communist testimony before the Dies Committee in 1938. He then served as chief investigator for the House Committee on Un-American Activities, headed by Martin Dies, Jr., consultant on Communist affairs for the Hearst Corporation, and by June 1953 research director for Joseph McCarthy's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the United States Senate. When Matthews published claims that the Protestant clergy comprised a base of support of the American Communist movement, he was forced to resign.
Matthews was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky on June 28, 1894, of French Huguenot, Scottish, and English ancestry. Matthews' paternal grandfather was killed fighting for the Confederacy during the American Civil War, with his father subsequently orphaned shortly after the war and left to fend for himself at a very young age.
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