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Sometimes when I’m looking through a newspaper archive, there will be an article, photo, or even an advertisement that catches my interest. Ina Evans caught my interest and I wanted to know more about her life.
The pages of the August 3, 1972, DeKalb New Era newspaper features ads and articles on various local political candidates at the time. One of those candidates was Ina C. Evans and the article is titled “Ina Evans Offers for House Post.”
This photograph of Ina C. Evans appeared with the 1972 article announcing her as a candidate for House seat 55. (The DeKalb New Era, August 3, 1972)
Ina C. Evans was running for the District 55 House seat. Her platform included better health facilities, tax reform and better educational facilities in DeKalb County. She and her campaign team went door to door talking to voters and distributing material.
Evans spoke to The DeKalb News Sun about her campaign, “We are hoping that voters will decide on the basis of qualifications. I firmly believe that office holders are elected to voice the needs and concerns of the community. Win or lose, I’ll be right here next year and the year after battling to put this community up front in DeKalb.”
Evans lost the race, which went to a runoff between Betty J. Clark and Sherman S. Barge. Betty Clark won the runoff, and as a Democrat who was unopposed, she won the seat.
Ina Evans was born in Gallatin, Tennessee in 1935. She graduated with honors from Mississippi Valley State College. Her resume included working as a poll monitor in the Democratic primary in 1968 and during the presidential election that year.
In 1969, she was campaign manager in the Kirkwood area for H. E. Tate, the first Black candidate for Mayor of Atlanta. Evans also worked as area coordinator for the Committee for Sensible Rapid Transit.
Evans was secretary for the Georgia Shirley Chisholm Fund when Chisholm ran for President in 1972. She was an alternate delegate for the 1972 National Democratic Convention.
Evans would later serve 14 years on the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education. She worked with Maynard Jackson, first Black Mayor of Atlanta, and civil rights leader and activist Rev. Hosea Williams, founder of “Hosea Feed the Hungry.” Later, she would work in the office of Governor Jimmy Carter. (meadowsmortuary.com)
She was married to John Evans for 30 years. He was President of the DeKalb County chapter of the NAACP for sixteen years before retiring in 2016. According to a 2012 oral history with John Evans in the archives of DeKalb History Center, he was appointed to the DeKalb County Executive Committee in 1968, on recommendation of Maynard Jackson. He also worked on the Shirley Chisholm 1972 Presidential campaign.
In the 1970s, Ina Evans operated the Loving Care Day Care Center in Kirkwood.
She passed away June 30, 2021.