Joseph Brown Doc Matthews, Sr. , best known as J.B. Matthews, was an American linguist, and an educator, writer, and political activist. A committed pacifist, Matthews became a selfdescribed fellow traveler of the Communist Party, USA through the middle1930s, achieving national prominence as a leader of a number of the partys socalled mass organizations. A disillusionment with communism followed towards the end of the 1930s. Matthews later became a professional anticommunist expert who served as chief investigator for the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities headed by Martin Dies, Jr., then worked as a consultant on Communist affairs for the Hearst Corporation.
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.
Source: Wikipedia