Martin Dies Jr. (November 5, 1900 – November 14, 1972), also known as Martin Dies Sr., was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. He was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-second and after that to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1931 – January 3, 1945). In 1944, Dies did not seek renomination to the Seventy-ninth Congress, but was elected to the Eighty-third and to the two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1959). Again, he did not seek renomination in 1958 to the Eighty-sixth Congress. In 1941 and 1957, he was twice defeated for the nomination to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate. Dies served as the first chairman of the Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities from 1937 through 1944 (Seventy-fifth through Seventy-eighth Congresses). Background He was born in Colorado City, Texas, on November 5, 1900, to Martin Dies Sr., who was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1909 to 1919. He studied at the University of Texas and obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree at the National University School of Law, Washington, DC. Career Dies worked as an attorney in Marshall, Texas and Orange, Texas and eventually became a district judge. In 1931, Dies was elected from Texas 2nd District to the House of Representatives, a constituency that his father represented for a decade, thus becoming a second generation Democratic U.S. congressman. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Dies wrote in the Chicago Herald-Examiner that the "large alien population is the basic cause of unemployment." Due to the support of fellow Texan John Nance Garner, he became a member of the important House Rules Committee. At the beginning, Dies fully supported the New Deal as it aimed to provide relief for the distressed rural areas, which he represented in Congress. However, being a conservative Southerner, he turned against it after the 1936 election, when labor unions started to play a much bigger role in national politics. In 1938, he started as a chairman of the Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities and remained at its helm until 1944. At ease with newsmen, Dies was frequently in the national media spotlight. House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities Dies and Samuel Dickstein created the House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities, initially nicknamed the Dies Committee, later becoming HUAC in 1946. Dies was its