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John Stephens Wood ( February 8 , 1885 - September 12 , 1968 ) was a significant U.S. Political Figure . Wood was born in Cherokee County, Georgia and studied law at Mercer University . He practised law and served as Solicitor General of the judicial circuit of Georgia (1921-25) and judge of the superior courts (1925-31). A member of the Democratic Party , Wood was elected to Congress in 1931. He lost his seat in 1934 but was reelected after World War II . He served as the chairman of House Un-American Activities Committee in 1945/46 and again from 1949 to 1952 and was a key figure in the investigation of the American Communist Party and the entertainment industry that resulted in the Hollywood Blacklist . He was criticized for failing to properly investigate the Ku Klux Klan . An open Klan sympathizer, Wood defended them by arguing that: "The threats and intimidations of the Klan are an old American custom, like illegal whisky-making." Wood retired from politics in 1952 and returned to practice law in Canton, Georgia. |