To the editors:
Doug Cassel’s article of March 17th seems more like a campaign piece for Tim Evans than a realistic analysis of his career. Cassel repeatedly suggests that Alderman Evans kept struggling against the Chicago Democratic machine in the years before Harold Washington’s Mayoral victory. Yet those of us who observed his activities closely during those years have no such memories.
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In 1976, when Ralph Metcalfe Sr. broke with the machine, Evans worked hard to defeat him. Following Metcalfe’s death in 1978, black committeemen from the First Congressional District were summoned to City Hall and ordered to name Bennett Stewart as Metcalfe’s successor. At the subsequent tumultuous meeting at Liberty Baptist Church, Evans followed orders and voted for Stewart. In 1980, Evans voted against Harold Washington for U.S. Representative in the party’s slating session and worked hard to defeat him. In 1982, Evans left the slating session for the 26th State Representative District before a vote was taken on endorsing independent Democrat Barbara Flynn Currie for re-election. His departure came after it became obvious that a majority of the votes of the remaining committeemen would be cast against Currie and that Evans had enough votes to reverse this decision. He then worked very hard to defeat her, claiming that the decision of the remaining committeemen compelled him to do so.
Alan Mora Dobry Fifth Ward Democratic Committeeman S. Drexel
