George W. Evans (1900-1948)
MSA SC 3520-14581
African American Attorney
Biography:
Born August 16, 1900 in Sevierville, Sevier County, Tennessee. Son of Thomas Luther Evans and Mollie L. (McMahon) Evans. Married Willerma ca. 1919. Two children: Elizabeth and George Witt, Jr. Attended Howard University. Admitted to the bar of the Court of Appeals Nov. 21, 1923. Admitted to the bar of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City Nov. 26, 1923. Law partner of J. Steward Davis 1923-1929. Secretary of National Bar Association. President of Monumental City Bar Association. Died Feb. 15, 1948 at Provident Hospital, Baltimore.
George Witt Evans was born in Sevierville, Tennessee. His mother was a Sevierville native but his father was from East Point, near Nashville. By 1918, his family had moved to nearby Knoxville. He registered for the draft in Knoxville and served in World War I. His draft card indicates that he worked as a waiter for the Thompson Starrett Co. in Vitro, West Virginia. Around 1920 he moved to Baltimore and began working as a post office clerk. Also around this time he married his wife, Willerma, and had two children, Elizabeth, born June 7, 1920, and George Witt, Jr., born June 7, 1922. The family lived at 1409 Druid Hill Ave. in Baltimore from 1922 to 1925 and moved to 1704 Ashland Ave. in 1926.
Although Evans registered as a law student with the Board of Law Examiners on December 14, 1922, his educational history is somewhat of an unknown. According to the Afro-American newspaper of January 19, 1920 [wrong year--when was it?], he attended Howard University. His obitutuary in the Afro-American, however, reported that he graduated from Knoxville College, and Virginia Union University, and that he studied law through a corrispondance course. This discrepency aside, Evans took the bar exam in June, 1923, passing on his first attempt. He was admitted to the Maryland Bar November 12, 1923, and to the Baltimore Bar November 26, sponsored by J. Steward Davis. He began practicing in partnership with Davis almost immediately and is first mentioned in court dockets on Dec. 8, 1923, in cases before the Baltimore City Court and the Baltimore City Superior Court. However, he was probably working with Davis before his admission to the bar. Evans is listed in the Baltimore City Criminal Court docket as taking recognizance for some of Davis' clients in September 1923. The two practiced together for several years as "Davis & Evans," and had an office at 215 St. Paul Place in Baltimore. Togethor, their practice prospered through the middle years of the decade, handling a large volume of court cases, chiefly criminal defense and divorce proceedings. The partnership dissolved in the winter of 1928-1929, a few months before Davis disappeared. Evans set up a new office at 508 St. Paul St., moving to another office at 14 E. Pleasant St. in 1940.
Evans enjoyed a distinguished legal career. He was involved with six
cases before the Court of Appeals of Maryland and won four of them. Three
of these appeals were criminal cases in which the death penalty had been
imposed; the sentences were reduced to life imprisonment in two of them.
Evans served as president of the Monumental City Bar Association, an association
for African American attorneys in Baltimore, in 1936. He was secretary of
the National Bar Association, a national organization of African American
attorneys, in 1939. In November 1928, Evans won first prize in a contest
held by the Afro-American newspaper, a $2,620 Franklin sedan. Evans said
of the prize, "It has been rumored that I will sell the Franklin. I wish
to say to you who helped me win that I shall keep it and enjoy the comforts
it affords."
After a brief illness, Evans died on February 15, 1948 at Provident Hospital in Baltimore of cirrhosis of the liver. He was buried in Arbutus Memorial Park. According to a letter by Dallas F. Nicholas, another well known lawyer in Baltimore's African American community, "His death was quite sudden and a great shock to all of us." Indeed, his death appears to have been so sudden that Evans had not written a will.
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