Joe L. Evins

Joe L. Evins
Evins in 1973
Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from Tennessee
In office
January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1977
Preceded byHarold Earthman
Succeeded byAlbert Gore Jr.
Constituency5th district (1947-1953)
4th district (1953-1977)
Personal details
BornJoseph Landon Evins
(1910-10-24)October 24, 1910
DeKalb County, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedMarch 31, 1984(1984-03-31) (aged 73)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting placeSmithville Town Cemetery
PartyDemocratic
RelativesDan Evins (nephew)
EducationVanderbilt University
Cumberland School of Law
George Washington University

Joseph Landon Evins (October 24, 1910 – March 31, 1984) was an American lawyer and politician who served 15 terms as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Tennessee from 1947 to 1977.

Early life

Evins was a native of the Blend Community of DeKalb County, Tennessee, the son of James Edgar Evins and Myrtie Goodson Evins.[1] His father was a Tennessee state senator and a successful local businessman.[2] He was also the namesake of Edgar Evins State Park near Smithville. One of his brother's children ran a local bank. Another nephew, Dan Evins, was the founder of the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurant chain.[3]

Evins graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1933 and the Cumberland School of Law in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1934, as well as The George Washington University.[4] He was admitted to the bar in that same year and began practice in Smithville, the county seat of DeKalb County.[4]

Career

In 1935 Evins was named a staff attorney for the Federal Trade Commission, and served in this position until 1938, when he was named the FTC's assistant secretary, a position which he held until 1940.[4]

Shortly after U.S. entry into World War II, he was commissioned in the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps, serving on active duty until 1946, when he resumed his law practice in Smithville.[4]

Upon his return, he was also elected chairman of the DeKalb County Democratic Party.[5]

Congress

Later in that same year, he won the nomination of the Democratic Party for the seat from the 5th District, defeating first-term incumbent Harold Earthman. He won the election easily in this solidly-Democratic area, and was re-elected to fourteen more terms, generally with little or no opposition. He had a regular Republican opponent in only three of the elections. His district was renumbered the 4th after the 1950 Census, when Tennessee lost a congressional district.[6]

Evins was a powerful figure in Congress. He was chair of the House Select Committee on Small Business for six terms, and for the following Congress of the permanent Small Business Committee, and chaired the Speaker's patronage committee for five terms. Most importantly he served on the House Appropriations Committee for eleven terms and was chair of its Subcommittee on Independent Offices and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for three terms and, even more critically its Subcommittee on Public Works for three terms.[7]

He used his influence to make sure that his district, a mostly rural area east and south of Nashville, was well taken-care of; Smithville was the smallest city chosen for participation in the Model Cities Program and its major thoroughfare was renamed "Congressional Boulevard."

The Tennessee Technological University Appalachian Center for Craft near Smithville was built with a $5 million federal grant that Evins secured as a member of the Appropriations Committee.[8]

Evins was slow to accept racial desegregation. He signed the 1956 Southern Manifesto[9] and voted against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,[10] 1960,[11] 1964,[12] and 1968.[13] But Evins voted present on the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[14] and voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[15] For the most part, Evins had a liberal voting record as a Congressman.[16]

Evins decided not to stand for re-election in 1976, after serving a total of 15 terms. At the time of his retirement in January 1977, his continuous service in the U.S. House of Representatives was longer than that of any other House member from Tennessee.[1][17][18]

In a spirited primary to succeed him, Al Gore won and began his political career.

Personal life

His wife, Ann Smartt, with whom he had three daughters, was the daughter of a McMinnville judge.[19]

Death and burial

Evins died in Nashville on March 31, 1984, and is buried in the Smithville Town Cemetery in Smithville.[20]

References

  1. 1 2 Carroll Van West, "Joseph Landon Evins, 1910-1984," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture; accessed November 26, 2017.
  2. ↑ The History of Evins Mill Archived May 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, accessed July 8, 2008
  3. ↑ Langer, Emily (January 16, 2012). "Dan Evins, founder of Cracker Barrel highway empire, dies". Washington Post. Retrieved January 28, 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Joe L. Evins at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; accessed November 26, 2017.
  5. ↑ Official Congressional Directory, 80th Congress, 2nd Session (Report). Office of Congressional Directory. December 31, 1947. p. 121.
  6. ↑ Kemple, Arlon (2026). Had Enough? The Congressional Class of 1946, the Continuity of Policy, and the Transience of Public Office. p. 77-8, 300, 339, 382, 409, 441, 472, 498, 532, 557, 593, 626, 651, 682.
  7. ↑ Kemple, pp. 426, 539, 565, 614, 637, 639, 659-60, 690, 705, 708.
  8. ↑ About the Appalachian Center for Craft Archived May 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Appalachian Center for Craft website, accessed July 8, 2008.
  9. ↑ "Southern Congressmen Present Segregation Manifesto". CQ Almanac. 1956. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
  10. ↑ "HR 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957". GovTrack.us.
  11. ↑ "HR 8601. PASSAGE".
  12. ↑ "H.R. 7152. PASSAGE".
  13. ↑ "TO PASS H.R. 2516, A BILL TO ESTABLISH PENALTIES FOR INTERFERENCE WITH CIVIL RIGHTS. INTERFERENCE WITH A PERSON ENGAGED IN ONE OF THE 8 ACTIVITIES PROTECTED UNDER THIS BILL MUST BE RACIALLY MOTIVATED TO INCUR THE BILL'S PENALTIES".
  14. ↑ "S.J. RES. 29. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO BAN THE USE OF POLL TAX AS A REQUIREMENT FOR VOTING IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS". GovTrack.us.
  15. ↑ "TO PASS H.R. 6400, THE 1965 VOTING RIGHTS ACT".
  16. ↑ Ideology Data for Joe Evins
  17. ↑ Who was Joe L. Evins?, DeKalb County, Tennessee website; accessed July 8, 2008.
  18. ↑ B. Carroll Reece, who died early in his 18th term in Congress, served longer in the House of Representatives than anyone else in Tennessee history, but his House tenure was not continuous. Jimmy Quillen served 17 consecutive terms in the House, breaking Evins' record for the longest continuous tenure in the House for a Tennessee congressman.
  19. ↑ Joe L. Evins, in Tennessee Blue Book, 1975-1978, page 49
  20. ↑ "Former congressman Joe L. Evins Dies". United Press International. March 31, 1984.
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