J. Parnell Thomas

John Parnell Thomas ( born January 16, 1895 in Jersey City, New Jersey; † 19 November 1970 at Saint Petersburg, Florida ) was an American politician. Between 1937 and 1950 he represented the State of New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

J. Parnell Thomas attended the public schools in Allendale and then the High School in Ridgewood. He then studied at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During the First World War, he served 1917-1919 in Europe in the United States Army. He rose to become captain. From 1920 to 1938, Thomas worked in the investment industry. Since 1938 he has also worked in the insurance business in New York City. He also began a political career as a member of the Republican Party. In 1925 he was a town councilor in Allendale; 1926 to 1930, he served as mayor of this city.

From 1935 to 1937 Thomas sat as an MP in the New Jersey General Assembly. In the congressional elections of 1936 he was in the seventh constituency of New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Randolph Perkins on 3 January 1937. After six re- elections he could remain until his resignation on January 2, 1950 in Congress. During his time in Congress, some of the New Deal legislation of the Federal Government there were passed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt until 1941. Since 1941 the work of the Congress of the events of the Second World War and its aftermath was marked. Politically, Thomas was considered to be very conservative. Between 1947 and 1949, he chaired the Committee on Un-American Activities. Under his leadership, numerous persons were interrogated for alleged Communist activities by the Committee.

Thomas ' resignation took place after a corruption scandal in which he was accused of, among other things fraud and abetting. This led to a 18-month prison sentence, which he served in Danbury. At the same time there were also Lester Cole and Ring Lardner Jr., who had refused to cooperate with Thomas ' Committee as a member of the Hollywood Ten and were sentenced to prison terms. After his release from prison he gave 1951-1955 identifies three weekly newspapers in Bergen County. In 1954, he sought unsuccessfully to re- nomination of his party for the congressional elections. Otherwise, he again worked in the investment industry. Parnell Thomas died on November 19, 1970 in Saint Petersburg.

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