J. B. Matthews

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Joseph Brown Matthews, Sr.

Matthews on March 27, 1956
Born June 28, 1894(1894-06-28)
Hopkinsville, Kentucky
Died July 16, 1966 (aged 72)
New York City
Cause of death Parkinson's disease
Education Asbury College (1915)
Drew University (1923)
Columbia University (1924)
Spouse Grace Ison (m. 1917)
Ruth E. Shallcross (m. 1936)
Ruth Inglis (m. 1949)
Children Joseph Brown Matthews, Jr.
Roy Matthews
Martin S. Matthews
Margaret Matthews Burd
Grace Matthews Cressman

Joseph Brown Matthews, Sr. (June 28, 1894 – July 16, 1966), better known as J. B. Matthews, was a former Methodist churchman who charged in 1953 that U.S. Protestant ministers "are the largest single group supporting" Communism in the United States.[1] He was chief investigator for the Martin Dies, Jr. House Committee on Un-American Activities.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

He was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky on June 28, 1894.[2]

He attended Asbury College, then became a Methodist missionary in Java. Matthews returned to the United States and studied in several different seminaries, before joining the faculty of Scarritt, a Methodist training college in Nashville, Tennessee. He was forced to leave because of a "furor over an interracial party held in his home, at which whites were reported to have danced with Negroes."[1]

In 1949 he married Ruth Inglis as his third wife. She was a consultant for the Hearst Corporation. She was treasurer, assistant publisher, and trustee of Consumers' Research. She was a professor of sociology at the University of Washington and research editor of Combat, a subsidiary of National Review. She helped launch Deadline Data on World Affairs and she was a staff member of the House Committee on Internal Security.[2]

In July of 1953, Matthews published an article titled "Reds in our Churches" in The American Mercury magazine, where he said that United States Protestant ministers "are the largest single group supporting" Communism in the United States.[3] [4]

Matthews died on July 16, 1966 in New York City.[5]

[edit] Publications

[edit] Further reading

  • Robert M. Lichtman (2006). "J. B. Matthews and the ‘‘Counter-subversives’’". American Communist History 5 (1). 

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c "The Matthews Story", Time (magazine), August 10, 1953. Retrieved on 2008-03-17. 
  2. ^ a b Joseph Brown Matthews. Duke University. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
  3. ^ McCarthy's Downfall. Mount Holyoke College. Retrieved on 2008-03-17. “In June 1953, J.B. Matthews was appointed as McCarthy's research director. In July, Matthews published an article called "Reds in our churches" in the conservative American Mercury. In it, Matthews referred to the Protestant clergy as " the largest single group supporting the Communist apparatus in the United States." The result was a public outrage at Matthews as well as his boss McCarthy.”
  4. ^ "Uncheckable Charge", Time (magazine), July 13, 1953. Retrieved on 2008-03-18. "'The largest single group supporting the Communist apparatus in the U.S. today is composed of Protestant clergymen.' This astounding and inherently uncheckable statement appears in the July issue of the American Mercury under the byline of Joseph B. Matthews. No sooner had his article been spotted than the protests began to crackle." 
  5. ^ "J.B. Matthews, Leftist Turned Conservative, Dies. Served Briefly on McCarthy Investigating Panel Charged Protestant Clergy Supported U.S. Communists.", New York Times, July 17, 1966. Retrieved on 2008-03-17. "J.B. Matthews, a former Methodist minister who embraced leftist ideologies in the nineteen-thirties and later served briefly on the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's investigative subcommittee, died of Parkinson's disease yesterday in the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. He was 72 years old and lived at 1 West 81st Street." 
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