Growing up in Vienna in the 1930s and 1940s had a major impact on Methvin’s work throughout his life. Methvin’s parents published The Vienna News, known for its opposition to Jim Crow laws. Methvin’s parents received death threats from Ku Klux Klan members for their views. In his later years he would recall that, "as a young man I considered myself a liberal, because I was against lynching. When I got to Washington, to my surprise, I learned I was a conservative."
