William Clarence Matthews (January 7, 1877 – April 9, 1928) was an early 20th-century African-American pioneer in athletics, politics and law.

Matthews, having come from poverty and with no living parent, had to financially support himself with multiple jobs, but still managed to graduate in 1905 and was accepted to Boston University School of Law.

He worked as legal counsel to Marcus Garvey before getting active in Republican Party politics and helping get Calvin Coolidge elected President in 1924.

For challenging the color line in professional baseball he is considered by his main biographer, Karl Lindholm, to be "the Jackie Robinson of his day".

[4] Washington arranged for Matthews to continue his study in the north, first at the Phillips Andover Academy, where he was the only African-American in his class of 97 students, and then in the fall of 1901 at Harvard University.

Matthews made an important contribution his first season by scoring the winning run in the final game of the series against Yale in front of 9,000 fans at the Polo Grounds in New York City.

Taking the field that day in a doubleheader against a team from Rutland, Matthews became the only African-American playing in white professional baseball leagues at the time.

At some points in the season, he was moved to the outfield in order to prevent his opponents from spiking him (injuring him with their metal cleats when sliding at him).

[1] However, Matthews eventually replaced his mentor at Harvard, William H. Lewis, as the assistant U.S. Attorney for the Boston area.

[6] From 1920 to 1923, Matthews became the chief legal counsel for the Marcus Garvey founded Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.

[10] Matthews criticized Lewis for leaving the Republican party and because of his efforts African-Americans in the North voted overwhelmingly for Coolidge.

Following the 1924 election, Matthews delivered a list of seventeen demands to improve the position of African-Americans in the Coolidge administration.

[1] He was assigned to cases in Nebraska (October 1925), Illinois (December 1925), and finally to deal with water issues in California (June 1926).

"[11] Since 2006, the Ivy League baseball team to win the conference title receives the William Clarence Matthews Trophy.