Matthew W. Bullock

Matthew Washington Bullock (September 11, 1881 – December 17, 1972) was an American football player and coach, college professor and administrator, and lawyer. He played high school football at Everett High School in Everett, Massachusetts and was captain-coach in 1899, becoming presumably the first African-American to coach a predominantly white high school. He served as the head football coach at Massachusetts Agricultural College—now the University of Massachusetts Amherst—in 1904 (becoming presumably the first African-American to coach a predominantly white college) and again from 1907 to 1908, at Morehouse College from 1909 to 1911, and at Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University from 1924 to 1926.

Matthew W. Bullock

Bullock pictured in The Index 1909, UMass yearbook
Biographical details
Born	(1881-09-11)September 11, 1881 Dabney, North Carolina
Died	December 17, 1972(1972-12-17) (aged 91) Detroit, Michigan
Playing career
1901–1903	Dartmouth
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1904	Massachusetts
1907–1908	Massachusetts
1909–1911	Morehouse
1924–1926	Alabama A&M
Head coaching record
Overall	26–14–6 (college)

Collins (left) shaking hands with Boston mayor John F. Collins after being appointed to the Boston Zoning Board

Bullock was born on September 11, 1881 to two former slaves. His family moved to Massachusetts, where he attended Everett High School. Bullock enrolled at Dartmouth College in 1900. At Dartmouth he played on the varsity football team for three years and ran track for four.[1] After graduating from Dartmouth in 1904, Bullock attended Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1907. He taught economics and sociology at Morehouse and was a dean at Alabama A&M. Bullock practiced law in Atlanta and Boston.

In 1927, Alvan T. Fuller, Governor of Massachusetts, appointed Bullock to the State Board of Parole and the Advisory Board of Pardons. In 1945, James Forrestal, United States Secretary of the Navy, appointed Bullock to a commission to study racial conditions among enlisted men in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II. The commission's report initiated racial integration in the United States Navy.[2] Bullock served on the Boston Zoning Commission, having been appointed by mayor John F. Collins in 1965.[3]

In 1940, Matthew Bullock became a member of the Baháʼí Faith.[4] He went on to be elected Chairman of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of Boston, and in 1947 presented ‘A Baháʼí Declaration of Human Obligations and Rights' to the first session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.[5] In 1952 he was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, a position that allowed him the opportunity to visit Haifa, Israel, where he met Shoghi Effendi. Describing this meeting, he said ‘My visit to him and to the Holy Shrines are experiences beyond words. I don’t think I will ever be able to express what it meant to me…I wish every Baháʼí could have the bounty which has been mine.’[4] He was designated by Shoghi Effendi as a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh for the West Indies in 1953, and traveled extensively teaching the Baháʼí Faith in Haiti, Costa Rica, Mexico, the Belgian Congo, and Liberia during his remaining years.[6]