Matthew Washington Bullock was born Sept. 11, 1881, in Dabney, Vance County, North Carolina to formerly enslaved parents. His parents, Jesse and Amanda (Sneed) Bullock were born enslaved. In 1889, the family moved to Boston "with seven children and a ten dollar bill."

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.

Mr. Bullock Died December 17, 1972 (aged 91) in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan.

Mr. Bullock attended public schools and in 1896, he graduated from Everett Center Grammar School. He then attended Everett High School, where he was the first African American captain of the high school team as well as captaining the hockey("ice polo") and baseball teams. Bullock was recognized as among the best athletes of the school.

His brother Henry was also a star athlete at Everett.
Bullock was listed as a member of the Center School Alumni association of Fall 1899.

In June 1900, the US Census Records recorded that six children between the ages of 29 and 15 lived with Jesse and Joseph. Jesse and Joseph, the eldest, were day laborers although they have also been unemployed some months of the previous year. Jesse and Amanda were listed as illiterate while all children were listed as literate.

Dartmouth College
Bullock was to start his time at Dartmouth College in 1901. His father sent him $50 for his tuition (equivalent to about $1,300 in 2021) and enrolled him at Dartmouth College. He had to start working to pay his tuitions.
He enrolled at Dartmouth in the autumn and was elected to the Glee Club for his singing abilities, as well as serving on the track team for all four years. Bullock was the first African American to play football at Dartmouth, but he played a game his freshman year. He finished second in the high jump at an event that year.

The following year he started as a defensive end on the football team, and played well In his Sophomore year he won first place in the broad jump and was successful in football. Bullock sang as a baritone soloist at a Vermont Church in April, 1903. He had greater success in his junior year, despite playing only the first six games.

In his senior year Bullock was on the varsity football team and achieved national recognition. He was part of the Dartmouth football team that defeated Harvard at the dedication event of the Dartmouth stadium in later 1903.[18] A picture of Bullock was printed in a November issue of the Boston Post at the age of 22.

A week later Bullock was refused accommodations during a game at Princeton University and also called out during the game; events that were covered in newspapers in various states across the nation.

He broke a collarbone in the first play of this third game of the year in this Princeton game and it was widely believed he had been targeted. Dartmouth cut athletic ties with Princeton for several years.

This was all during Woodrow Wilson's presidency at Princeton there and his investment in segregationally practices in the school. However Bullock was not named an All-American despite qualifying. His senior year he was also a member Palaeopity Senior Society as a distinguished individual, other by-invitation boards and committees, and was the associate editor of The Aegis.

Bullock graduated in 1904, with a Bachelor of Arts degree and scholastic and athletic distinctions, but only honorable mention in Walter Camp's All-American football listing for 1904.

Sports commentator and NAACP leader Edwin Henderson in 1939 observed of Bullock's performance in 1901-3 "Why Bullock did not receive All-American selection has never been understood. Bullock was one of the brainiest men of football ability the game has ever had.”

Indeed Bullock released his own list of All-American footballers in 1911.

Bullock then attended Harvard Law School 1904-1907 ultimately earning an LLB degree while James Barr Ames was Dean of the school. Along the way he paid is tuition by coaching football.
He soon coached for the Massachusetts Agricultural and Mechanical College (now University of Massachusetts at Amherst) starting in the fall of 1904 and was credited with the comment "the outlook is the most encouraging in years" in the school newspaper.

By that winter it said it "has been without doubt the most successful (season) in the history of the college” credited to Bullock after defeating 5 larger institutions and play in the championship bout and the team presented Bullock with an inscribed watch fob and charm.

He was the first Black football coach of an integrated college team and had a winning record, and was one of a handful of African American football figures in the eastern White colleges.

He then coached at Malden High School in 1905 as its first Black football coach and was presented with a bonus for his improvement of the team in the year.

They were undefeated early in 1906-7 school year.

Bullock finished at Harvard in the summer of 1907, with a Bachelor of Law degree studied at Cornell University, and returned to Agriculture & Mechanics College where he was set to coach more seasons. There was also a report he was heading out to Oklahoma to practice law. However by early 1909 he was in the South. That May his father died while the family was living on Winter Street.

Atlanta service
In 1908 Bullock accepted a position at Morehouse College (then Atlanta Baptist College) as athletic director and teacher.

In 1910 he was thanked in the preface of a book The Negro in Literature and Art by Benjamin Griffith Brawley. In September he married Katherine Wright in Boston.

Katherine was born in Middlesboro, Kentucky, to Peter Wright and Julie Heatherlee.
The Bullocks continued to live in Atlanta and by 1911 he had worked for three years in the Interscholastic Athletic Association's field games, and was faculty at the Atlanta Baptist College. His work in athletics was called an example of an HBCU "farm school" through which athletes could earn a place in white schools.

Ultimately he taught Latin, History and Social Sciences serving for 4 years with distinction. He then worked as a lawyer in Atlanta from 1912 to 1915, including submitting an amendment to the school charter of 1913 to change the name of the college from the Atlanta Baptist College to Morehouse College. He was again thanked by Brawley for being one of the reviewers of his book A short history of the American Negro published in 1913.

He then served two years, from 1915 to 1917, as dean of The State Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes—now known as Alabama A&M University—in Normal, Alabama.

World War I and YMCA service
Bullock was registered with the Massachusetts State Bar in August 1917, and in February 1918 he was resident in Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston, working as a lawyer.

He tried to volunteer to serve in a combat unit for World War I but was called "too old" to serve about age 36, and had a heart murmur, but worked via the YMCA's war effort, seeking to work in France and England.

He was marked 6’1” tall on his passport application and his first witness was a clerk of the 1st Circuit Court of Boston. His mother was living with his family.

He was booked to leave from New York on the French SS Rochambeau on February 20 and appointed a secretary of the National War Council of the YMCA of the US to serve with American troops, however he served as a YMCA Educational Secretary at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, first, initially as a breakfast guest of former law practice associate Charles Ford.

He worked at Camp Meade to coach athletics, led singing, and taught French language. After 3 months he went to France with the 369th US Infantry (aka 15th NY Regiment) and served as a Physical Director for 15 months.
He was one of eight such YMCA Secretaries. Bullock had a staff of four assistants one of which was a colored woman who was protested of in the military based on issues of southern-extraction army officials in Bordeaux.

The situation caused an initial limit of participation of women to just three to act as nurses for 150,000 soldiers. He was an organizing personality in the Leave area in part because of his fame in sports but also his service with the women working in the circumstances.

Bullock and another of the YMCA designée followed the 369th all the way to the banks of the Rhine leading other units and accorded distinction because of the quality of its trenches.

Bullock was singled out for noting his steadfast support of the soldiers during the worst of the battle. Bullock was called of "especially valiant service” noting he "could be seen at all times making his way under tremendous shell fire that he might reach his men with necessary supplies; … (and) in giving first aid to the wounded.”

Bullock was recommended for the Croix de Guerre medal for leadership and bravery but it wasn't approved by the white colonel as described in the autobiography of John Hope. Hope had been stationed in Paris. Rev. Benjamin Robeson wrote about the issue in a letter to the New York Age.

Robeson begins "It is not long ago that all New York anxiously, confidently bade adieu to this history-making regiment. Believing them capable, knowing them to be fearless, depending upon them to brighten the memory of their fathers, you watched, waited, and listened.…"

I wish to speak of one who still plods the path of duty with an infectious smile, happy and patient because he knows time will dip her pen in the ink of justice and rightly reward him.

I refer to Secretary Bullock (we call him Matt) who wears the badge of the faithful and walks with the step of the worthy.… Just before that memorial drive of September 25 … Bullock went to Chalons, faced the authorities, and said: 'I have nothing to give my men and they storm the heights tomorrow. I must have something or I cannot go back.' (eventually received his requests and) the campaign was on.

Every morning as the cannon were belching, men falling and bullets whizzing, over the hill came a human form. On his back were strapped (supplies…) On he came, now and then dropping for shelter.… Men wondered why he came into that region of death. When twilight wrapped the hills in its shadows, back came the same form empty handed; weary, but game. His coming and going stopped when there was no regiment to serve.

He wears no Croix de Guerre upon his breast, but within his breast throbs the spirit of devotion - devotion to God, country and race. The multitudes will see no D. S. C. to testify to his courage in that hour, but listen to the reflective melody sung by the boys of the old Fifteenth and you will hear of a faithfulness and service approaching that of the lowly Nazarene.

No Legion of Honor will proclaim his rank with the worthy, but as long as one member of this grand old regiment breathes the breath of life the name of Matthew W. Bullock will be heard and its worth will be sung.
Let us all honor the uncrowned here. He had served in the Champagne and Alsace fronts of later 1917 through May 1918, and was recommended for the Croix de Guerre for the September–October battle.

Bullock arrived at Ellis Island two months later from Brest, France, on the USS Mobile noting his home residence at Sarsfield Street, Roxbury.

He retired from war service June 4, 1919, and by then German was added to his language skills. He was then a member of Baptist Church, and had been paid over $1200, ($18k in 2021 dollars, for his service.

Years later he recalled the bitter disappointment of the relatively integrated service in the military and returning home to a more deeply segregated society.

He spoke at the convention of the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs of Maine held in Washington, D.C., speaking of the military service of soldiers in France.

Boston service in the African American Community
Bullock cofounded the Boston chapter of the National Urban League in 1919 and was appointed its first executive officer in January 1920. which he served as into 1921, and gained a reputation of "an unusually high humanitarian idealism”.

Later, in the words of Helen Elsie Austin, it was noted as the start of a career of public services of "more than twenty years, constantly pioneering for social justice and human dignity."

The January 1920 US Census had the couple married renting a home on Sarsfield Street and he was employed as a lawyer.[60] Bullock was also credited with founding a branch of the YMCA to serve the South End-Roxbury Black community which ran 1920-1922, and then was closed to preserve a non-segregated program with the main branch.

In March Bullock was recognized in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin as the Secretary of the Boston Urban League, noted his service in France during WWI but thought that he had indeed received the Croix de Guerre from the French government, Son Matthew Jr. was born April 4, 1920, and a couple weeks later Bullock gave a talk on the history of the Urban League to a Boston Club, and spoke at St. Bartholomew's Church in late May.

He filed to run for office in state government in July, was on the ballot with Andrew Lattimore, and had spent a little over $17 on the registering for the election. He was also on the list of those available for the position of assistant director for the Department of Corporations and Taxation with the state.

In October he addressed the Ellot Club as a member of the Boston Urban League on “What does the Negro Want? The Answer" while running for office.
Bullock and Lattimore campaigned across Ward 13. Meanwhile his wife was visible at a fundraiser for Atlanta University. In November Bullock got more votes than Lattimer for the Republicans but both lost against the Democratic ticket.

The two claimed they had been voted against for being Black and the case had thought to be in contest because of increased Republican women registering to vote. Then governor John Jackson Walsh spoke out against the race issue prejudice in voting.

Bullock and Lattimer advanced a recall petition against the Democrats in January 1921. In February Bullock returned to Everett to talk for the Board of Trade about “The Negro, a great asset” and the article covering his talk recalled his 1896-1900 service at the Everett High School, then on to athletic success and now lawyer.

A few days later Bullock and Lattimer testified about their challenge to the election and offered biographical summaries of their lives. Bullock detailed that he graduated from Everett High School, Dartmouth College, Harvard Law School and had a post-graduate class at Cornell. He tried to serve during WWI but was rejected "because of an 'athlete's heart'" as he put it but worked at a YMCA secretary overseas.

Their petition had a hearing for the House Committee on Elections claiming illegal means had been used to complete the election. Depositions were taken of witnesses after a significant delay. The majority of the committee did not support the petition though at least one member did.

Bullock and Lattimer escalated with the state Speaker of the House seeking a chance to address the whole House. The progress of the petition had cost $225 in legal fees, (near three thousand dollars in 2021 dollars.)

Generally from 1921 to 1924 Bullock worked as an attorney. This may be when he worked with the Cardozo and Tucker firm. In June Bullock spoke at the Everett High School graduation ceremony as a graduate of the 1900 class. In July at the request of a committee of the Urban League Bullock was asked to be a district chair for the city of Boston and it was said of him that "The feature of the work in his district was the fine co-operation he received from the ministers and all social welfare organizations."

He also served with the [Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, a fraternal service society and source of a life insurance company in another decade, on their Committee Credentials for those seeking election in the organization.

The Bullock's daughter Julia Amanda was born September 3, 1921. Bullock voiced his support for a candidate for Mayor in December.

Around this time there was another Matthew Bullock involved in North Carolina and Canada including threats from the KKK and a lynching c. 1921–1922. The two Bullocks were occasionally confused as in a funeral biography of Bullock in 1972.

Meanwhile Bullock again challenged the Democrat for the state representative position. In August he was on the primary for the Republican position, and spoke for a bank formation in Roxbury,[88] for Suffolk County. Before the voting in November, in October Bullock submitted a bill to the state House of Representatives as a public citizen to prohibit the Ku Klux Klan from forming an organization in the state because it was a "menace to the public peace”; the presentation drew widespread national attention.

Meanwhile the governor appointed special supervisors for the Ward 13 election. The election was held and Jessie Emery won.

In February 1923 hearings on the anti-Klan bill began. At Bullock's own testimony for the bill he said that a grandfather of his had been murdered by Klansmen and he urged passage of the bill as a private citizen.

He mentioned this incident again in 1966 saying that his mother's mother had found the body of his grandfather in an abandoned well. Bullock addressed a conference of the Knights of Pythias at their May 1923 meeting.

He then joined in the mass organization across Massachusetts called for by then Governor Channing H. Cox on the relief effort for the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1 in Japan through the Red Cross.
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Assistant State Attorney General
The Massachusetts Attorney General Jay R. Benton appointed Bullock as one of two special assistants in July 1924, first focusing on the legal issues of the new construction of the northern traffic highway from Boston to Wellington Bridge in Somerville. Today this is a segment of Interstate 93. The biographical article about him in the new position noted much of his familiar career in public service ending that he was the executive secretary of the Boston Urban League association and practiced law with Charles Williams, clerk of the Boston Juvenile Court. This appointment made some news in other places too.

Bullock was added to the committee of the Republican party of Massachusetts and addressed them about the Klan issue on its platform. It was the last plank considered in an otherwise quiet session.[98] Bullock spoke at another Republican party meeting in later October. In November Bullock presided at a meeting of political speakers held at People's Baptist Church.

In February 1925 Bullock attended the Everett High school reception for colored athletes. In September Bullock represented a community effort opposing a cleaning and dyeing business trying to set up shop because of its environmental effects. In November Bullock was a charter member co-founding the Boston chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He then spoke at an Omega Psi Phi meeting at Tuskegee highlighting the progress the African Americans had made.

In January 1926 Bullock spoke for a program arranged by the NAACP at Union Congregational Church in New York city. Bullock again protested the impact of a company on a neighborhood at a city council meeting in March.[ He also attended the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. This may have been at the 1926 dedication. In October Bullock addressed the National Equal Rights League on the situation of segregation.

In February 1927 Bullock spoke to a Knights of Pythias regional conference.
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State Parole Board
Bullock was called "among the best trained and most successful lawyers of the Negro race at the present time…” in 1927. He then started serving on the Massachusetts State Parole Board which extended for nine years, then was re-appointed in 1943, and then named chair in 1944, at which point he was the first African American head of a department of state government.

It began in March when Bullock was named to the State Parole Board by then Governor Avlan T. Fuller. This too made news. It was thought in coverage at the time he was born in Morganton, North Carolina (Dabney is north of Raleigh vs Morgontown in the far west) and recalled his Dartmouth football career and graduating in 1904.

While that coverage continued to echo over a month, Bullock gave a talk at the Unitarian Universalist Church on “A challenge to Christianity”. In July Bullock addressed a regional conference of the Knights of Pythias on the economic plight of the Blacks and the issue of mob violence.

Bullock was re-appointed to the State Parole Board in January 1928. That month Bullock also was named as a court advocate on the staff of the Greater Boston Police Post VFW.
In February Bullock wrote a letter that was read into the Federal Congressional Record to support the establishment of a Memorial to African Americans for the country.
A couple weeks later Bullock returned for a talk for the Knights of Pythias. In September the Bullocks hosted the Omega Psi College fraternity at their home on Windsor Street. In the fall Bullock was on the schedule of the Second Congregational Church's speakers list, described as the former secretary of the Urban League.

In January 1929 Bullock was recognized as chair of the Republican party for Ward 9 In June he addressed the United Negro Welfare Council on the conditions of the northeast, listed as one of those assistants to the Attorney General, though it is more correct to say he was now a member of the Parole Board.

With the Parole Board membership came questions and reports in the media about plea cases. In July one of Bullock's first comments was agreeing in a case that someone had committed murder in a unanimous rejection of innocence by the Board.

Another newspaper report in July mentioned the Board heard testimony about a case who's perpetrator had gained some support from prison personnel. Bullock was among the speakers at the dedication of a new community center in Cambridge made out of the old school in August and that month Bullock's salary as an associate Board member was raised from $2000 to $2250/yr and could have increased higher, (about $34000 in 2021 dollars.)

In September Bullock attended a Better Homes Association prize meeting about a neighborhood success story saving vacant lots. In October Bullock was among many appointed to a commission to advance raising a national memorial as a tribute to the contributions of African Americans in the history of the country.
In November Bullock was one of many that endorsed Frederick Mansfield.

Bullock was called the party leader of Ward 9 and State Parole Board Commissioner when he was going to attend the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity meeting in Baltimore in January 1930, with the beginning of the Great Depression in the United States. Bullock was one of the speakers at a Women's Republican Club meeting in March.
That month Bullock publicly criticized President Hoover for segregating travels to Europe and observed that the women had been more true to Lincoln and Sumner's influence on the Republican party. The next day Bullock attended a Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Baptist Church where he gave a talk/eulogy for the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias. The April 1930 US Census has attorney Matthew with wife Katherine and children both born in Massachusetts, Matthew Bullock Jr (9 years old), and Julie(8 years old,) owning a home worth an estimated $5500 ($86k in 2021 dollars.)

The Knights of Pythias met again in July at another Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island, and there Bullock was among the association's "Pythian Temple Commission”.

A couple weeks later the Parole Board had newspaper coverage when it heard the plea about a convict that had escaped jail and voluntarily returned. In August the Parole Board heard a plea from a man convicted of arson and insurance fraud who claimed he was innocent. In September a tableaux drama was held with Bullock as the voice announcer reviewing the role of African Americans in the Civil War.

The same month Bullock was appointed to a resolutions committee for the Republican party perhaps for his "dry" political views on alcohol drinks supporting prohibition against that of others who had “wet” views which again made some news.[138] In October Bullock was part of a Republican party set of rallies meeting at Springfield's Central High School, for William Butler.
In November Bullock was nominated on re-appointment on the Parole Board. In December the Parole Board heard the pardon appeal for a murderer of a policeman - there was support for and against the shooter saying he was innocent.

In March 1931, the Great Depression deeply affecting America, Bullock spoke at an Omega Psi Phi Fraternity at a memorial of Col. Charles Young at a Congregational Church in New York. In April the Parole Board submitted its suggestions for paroles amounting to 200 out of 433 hearings of the 4343 cases presented to the Board while noting that some cases were not suited to the Board as the right tool for interventions.

In September the Parole Board heard a pardon petition for the assaulter of two girls when the girls testified their earlier testimony was untrue. In October Bullock lead the evening session celebrating of the Robert Gould Shaw House, a community center in the Black community. In December the Parole Board heard a petition plea which was a fraud case of a man some thought was likable.

Bullock was scheduled to talk to the Cambridge Civic Club February 3, 1932. In March the Parole Board heard the parole plea for a case of abuse of a 16 year old girl, who, now 20 years old, plead for the case on a promise to her father on his death bed, and that month Bullock complained of women having gotten the right to vote without a sense of political party loyalty, though this complaint was in the context of a disenfranchisement of the Black community in Boston following 1895's redistricting.

In May Bullock was elected president of the Pan-Hellenic Council which is the national association of several fraternities. Charles Ponzi, the originator of the Ponzi scheme, plead a case for parole before the Board on technicalities. This year the Board's annual summary referred to their job being "increasingly difficult owing to the steady stream of pressure brought to bear upon it by relatives and influential friends” and having to defend itself against those who argue they are too lenient or too severe and “unfavorable newspaper coverage” with issues of re-employment, and alcoholic recidivism.

They noted a 1.1% revocations of paroles were of felons and was about the same as previous years. They had 4351 cases considered and 3192 granted and 1086 revoked with drunkenness accounting for most of the revocations. Bullock's place on the Parole Board was again up for re-appointment in late 1932.
In February 1933 Bullock supported a bill prohibiting car insurance discrimination for clients based on race, color, religion, or place of living in light of the requirement of insurance. He specifically addressed the State House Committee on Insurance about it.

The same month the Parole Board held meetings at Norfolk State Prison noting cases of larceny and others.
Community Church
Continuing his service on the State Parole Board, Bullock began a relationship of service with the Boston Community Church. He first appears speaking there on "Is the negro being driven into Communism?" in February.

The talk was summarized. He noted that though there was a culture of the community, younger people had left the Republican Party and joined the Democratic Party seeking aide and even became socialists or communists and was concerned that if the situation of the blacks in the country was not advanced to equality the youth would become communists. In May he spoke at a Lexington church at the Young People's Fellowship meeting.
Bullock missed a meeting of the Board in early June though it is unknown why. The Bullocks were among the patrons of the Cambridge Community Center in September. Bullock's birthday was also noted in Pasadena, California, that year.

A case of a murderer of a husband was brought to the Board in September. The Dartmouth football team of 1903 including Bullock, pictured in the newspaper, was remembered for its victory over Harvard at the new stadium in October. Bullock addressed the Mount Vernon Congregational Church Young People's Society in December,[168] during a toy donation gathering meant for children in a particular church in North Carolina and Christmas Supper of the community on topic of "Giving him a second chance".

Bullock then addressed the Community Church at its Christmas Service on "Can races, creeds and classes live together in Peace" noting he was the Director of the Community Church and having invited a Rabbi and a leader of the Massachusetts Federation of Labor as additional speakers, with music by the Greater Boston Negro Chorus. Bullock's comments spoke of the race problem tracing back to the roots of civilization and unfolding in various ways around the world, and that in America we could do better than segregation, limited access to courts, voting suppression and picking up on the problems in Germany being imported ideologically into America, and the stirring of the Ku Klux Klan.

February 1934 opens mention of Bullock giving another talk at the Community Church held with a meeting of the church leadership. The Parole Board heard the case of a murderer who was mentally compromised.

In March Bullock contributed to a fundraiser for the Coast Guard, and April he was one of the speakers at the Robert Gould Shaw House for a mass meeting on community issues, followed a week later when the Parole Board heard of Portuguese citizen who had killed a policeman.[176] In May Bullock spoke at a Rhode Island Republican gathering, and then in June Bullock resigned from the State Republican Party committee.

In July Bullock was up for reappointment to the Parole Board. was repointed, and in October and November it heard two cases of murderers. In November Bullock spoke of male culture at the morning Men's Day service at the African American Shiloh Baptist Church. In December Bullock was invited to a hotel to visit a representative at a National Crime Conference, denied access at first because he was black, and this made the news widely. A week later the Parole Board hear a case of an escaped prisoner.

In January 1935 Bullock proposed a change to the parole law for automatic paroles to be reviewed, and the case of the Bullock part of the election contest of 1921 was recalled via second-hand comments.
In February Bullock spoke at the Community Church anniversary.[187] He was among many that contributed to a general emergency fundraiser as well,[188] before speaking at a Race Relations Institute in the evening service at Park Avenue Congregational Church.[189] In April Bullock attended the graduation ceremonies of the Bigelow Evening School in South Boston,[190] and in May was again elected as president of the Community Church then located at 6 Byron Street.

Though the year isn't known, it is known Bullock attended a dinner reception for Ludmila Bechtold by the Bahá'ís, as she was known then, and they struck up friendship - this happened while Bullock was president of the Community Church[9][192][193] which could be here in the mid-1930s. After an initial exchange of questions Bechtold encouraged him to read the book of the religion, Some Answered Questions, and he and Mrs. Bullock visited Green Acre Bahá'í School,[9] (Green Acre), possibly for one of the annual Race Amity Convention meetings. It is known that about 1929 Bahá'í Doris McKay had met him briefly with a letter of introduction from James Hubert, Secretary of the Harlem chapter of the National Urban League, but that his reception was cool to her meeting him.[194]

In September Bullock, as president of the Community Church, presided over the second annual conference of church workers supporting social action.[195] The Parole Board also heard another murderer's case for parole.[196] In October Bullock oversaw meetings at the Community Church as president and at other churches.[197] One meeting became controversial as Communists stormed a meeting and took it over by strength of numbers.[198] In November the Parole Board heard another case of a murderer.[199] In December Bullock joined in the Board statement of not hearing the appeals of "persistent and habitual criminals” after a prison riot among many who were not eligible for parole.[200] On the other hand an arsonist was paroled on wide recommendation save by clerics.[201] Bullock was photographed during testimony of the Parole Board to the Governor's Council on the need of the existence of the Parole Board which it was considering ending it, though the Council did pass a recommended change in the law of sentencing. The concern was over strictness of the parole board being a reason for the recent prison riot.[202] The situation was largely dismissed by late January 1936 among factioning of Democrats.[203]

Mrs. Bullock attended a fundraiser concert given by Marian Anderson for the Cambridge Community Center in February.[204] The Community Church meetings continued with Bullock as president.[205] In early 1936 Bullock declined to serve on Board of the Boston NAACP chapter.[151] In March Bullock was among area church leaders addressing a youth conference of the Youth Council of the Greater Boston Federation of Churches on "Christianity and Racial barriers”.[206] About a week later Bullock spoke on the problem of race to the Wesley Foundation of Cambridge.[207] It is known that well known African American Bahá'í Louis Gregory gave talks in Boston in October and November.[208] Meanwhile Bullock's annual term on the Parole Board was ending in December and the new governorship of the Democrat James Michael Curley and was part of widely advertised listings in the state.[209] There were debates about whom to fill the position of by Democrats.[210] His replacement was named at the end of December,[211] which situation was still making news in April and May.[212]

Bullock had held the position since 1927 and most of the way through the Great Depression, until the change in political parties controlling the offices.

While all that was changing, Bullock was named a member of the board of the Boston Center for Adult Education in January, 1937.[213] The Bullocks were then also among those attending the reception for Maude Royden of London.[214] In February Bullock spoke in support of Clarence Skinner,[215] and was named to a committee to investigate ways to advance reemployment of the blacks of the state (after the Great Depression).[216] In March Bullock was named to the replacement on the State Department of Corrections while still living in Roxbury with his family.[217][31] That evening Bullock was announced to attend recognition ceremony set for mid-April in Cambridge.[218] A week later he spoke at the Wesley Foundation evening meeting at the Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church.[219] In May Bullock was again at the Boston Youth Conference,[220] and in June he was again named a member of the Board for the Adult Education Center.[221] In October Mrs. Bullock attended a Community Church Tea for the Women's International League.

Then Bullock was named vice president of the Community Church and scheduled to give a talk at the North Cambridge Community Church.

Meanwhile Bullock spoke publicly of his boss’ new plans on a budget for the Department of Corrections and was named leading the division on segregating hardened criminals away from others. In November Bullock was named first vice president of the Boston Urban League, and attended an Omega Psi Phi reception listed as a leader of the Community Church. That winter Bullock was named regional director of the National Bar Association.

In January 1938 Bullock was among speakers at an Athletic Night event in Cambridge. In February Bullock spoke on the issue of race in America at the evening meeting of the Cambridge Baptist Church Sunday Evening Club. In April Bullock spoke at Baptist rally in Malden, and attended the funeral of Parole Board co-worker. In May he was listed as vice president of Community Church as one of speakers at an exhibit on un-American propaganda. The rest of the year went by after that without mention of Bullock noted in the newspapers yet found.

In February 1939 Bullock chaired an inter-church goodwill dinner. His son also won a scholarship attending college in Maine that month. In March a list of members of the Urban League, NAACP, and others, included Bullock for passage of house bill to end discrimination in public utilities. Bullock was named a member of a 100-count committee for an Edvard Beneš lecture in town after his fleeing Nazi Germany occupation the previous year.

In May the Bullocks attended a prominent social affair at an exclusive club. Sometime during the year Bullock served on the Board of the Boston NAACP, and also helped register a forming association of black women beauticians with the state.

In June the Bullocks' son was noted at Bowdoin College in Maine. In August Bullock was named a counselor of the board of the Samuel Coleridge Taylor Music Association for its 20th anniversary.

January 1940 Bullock was invited to the Cambridge Community Center celebration of sports with leading political figures. A few days later the Community Church held a presentation on the history of the church noting the congregation had elected a black president for his qualities and diversity but didn't name him or list him as a member.

A few days later Bullock spoke at the Groton federation of clubs for members of area clubs. In February Bullock was among leaders present for a Conference of Civil Liberties] In March news came of Bullock's son on graduating from Bowdoin college and speaker at commencement; he was summa cum laude.
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Mr. Bullock's life story is extensive. Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_W._Bullock