Martin Dies Jr. (November 5, 1900 - November 14, 1972) was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives.
He was born in Colorado City, ...ver maisMartin Dies Jr. (November 5, 1900 - November 14, 1972) was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives.
He was born in Colorado City, Texas in 1900 as the son of Martin Dies Sr., himself a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1909-1919. He studied at the University of Texas and obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree at the National University School of Law, Washington, D.C. 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.
Between March 4, 1931 and January 3, 1945, Dies Jr. served as a Democrat to the Seventy-second and after that to the six succeeding Congresses. 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 (Seventy-fifth through Seventy-eighth Congresses).
Dies retired in January 1959, and passed away in 1972, aged 72.ver menos