{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | office = Mayor of Durham, North Carolina | image = <!-- only free-content images are allowed for depicting living people - see WP:NONFREE --> | term_start = 1951 | term_end = 1963 | predecessor = Daniel K. Edwards | successor = Wense Grabarek | birth_date = May 2, 1907 | birth_place = Plainfield, New Jersey, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1997|2|8|1907|5|2}} | spouse = Sara Nachamson | children = Robert Evans<br />Eli N. Evans | party = Democrat }}
'''Emanuel J. "Mutt" Evans''' (May 2, 1907 – February 8, 1997)<ref name="obit">{{Cite news|title = Obituaries|newspaper = The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|pages = B4 |date = 1997-02-10|url = http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AT&p_theme=at&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADA2F773D175E7&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|access-date = 2010-08-01}}</ref> was an American businessman and the first Jewish mayor of Durham, North Carolina. He served a then-record six terms from 1951 to 1963.
==Early life== [[File:The Evans Family in the Herald Sun.jpg|thumb|The Evans family. L to R: Mrs. Evans, Robert, Eli, and E. J. Evans.]] Evans was born in Plainfield, New Jersey on May 2, 1907.<ref name="pol-graveyard">{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/15607.html|title=Evans family of North Carolina|access-date=2010-07-15|date=2009-03-24|archive-date=2012-11-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105084816/http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/15607.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was the son of Isaac Evans and Sarah (Newmark) Evans and brother of Monroe Evans. Evans moved to North Carolina to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he met Sara Nachamson, a student at nearby Duke University and daughter of retailers Eli and Jenny Nachamson, who owned the United Dollar Stores Company. Evans and Nachamson married on June 19, 1928, in Durham, where they settled, taking over the day to day business of United Dollar Stores.<ref name="ED-united">{{cite web|url=https://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2010/07/322-328-west-main-united-department.html|title=322-328 West Main - United Department Store/Belk-Leggett|first=Gary|last=Kuber|publisher=Endangered Durham|date=2010-07-14|access-date=2010-07-15}}</ref><ref name="ED-evans-house">{{cite web|url= https://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2010/07/evans-house-1021-dacian.html |title=Evans House - 1021 Dacian|first=Gary|last=Kuber|publisher=Endangered Durham|date=2010-07-15|access-date=2010-07-15}}</ref>
==Race relations== Shortly after the end of World War II, the company, now Evans' United Department Stores, became the first business on Durham's Main Street to contain restrooms for African Americans, and was the site of the only integrated lunch counter in Durham.<ref name="provincials">{{cite book|title= The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South|first=Eli N.|last=Evans|year=2005|publisher= The University of North Carolina Press|page=27|isbn=978-0-8078-5623-9}}</ref> At some point in the early 1950s, Durham County Judge 'Bus' Borland ordered Evans to build a wall to separate white customers from African-American customers, in order to comply with North Carolina legal statutes. Evans responded by telling the Judge that, "you'll have to close the store, if you want me to do that", before his lawyer said that the specific statutes only applied to seated lunch counters. Evans removed the seats from the counter and raised the countertop to elbow height.<ref name="provincials" />
==Mayoral accomplishments== In 1951, Evans, a Democrat, became Durham's first Jewish mayor in an historic election. That year women were elected to the city council for the first time: Kathrine Robinson Everett and Mary Duke Biddle Trent.<ref name="short-hist">{{cite web|last=Richardson |first=Lynn |title=The Bull City—A Short History of Durham, North Carolina |url=http://www.durhamcountylibrary.org/ncc/short_history.pdf |publisher=Durham County Library |access-date=2010-07-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612212803/http://durhamcountylibrary.org/ncc/short_history.pdf |archive-date=2010-06-12 }}</ref> Contrary to expectations that Christian southerners would be biased against a Jewish candidate, Evans highlighted his leadership of his synagogue in his campaign, believing that his devotion to his religion would be respected.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/28/eli-evans-southern-jews-dead/ |title=Eli Evans, 'poet laureate' of the Jews of the South, dies at 85|first=Emily|last=Langer|date=July 28, 2022|via=WashingtonPost.com}}</ref>
As mayor, Evans led a coalition of blacks, whites, liberals and labor. His first campaign called for the rejection of “prejudice and bigotry,” and he received the black vote by an overwhelming margin of twenty to one.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Bauman |editor-first=Mark|year=1997|title= The Quiet Voices: Southern Rabbis and Black Civil Rights, 1880s to 1990s |publisher= University of Alabama Press|page=201}}</ref> During his record six terms as mayor, serving until 1963, Evans oversaw the desegregation of Durham's schools, public agencies, and Police and Fire departments.<ref name="lonely">{{cite book|last=Evans|first=Eli N.|year=1993|title=Lonely Days were Sundays: Reflections of a Jewish Southerner|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|page=xxi|isbn=978-0-87805-627-9}} - [https://archive.org/details/lonelydaysweresu00evan Read online, registration required]</ref>
==Selling the stores== In 1961, after it became apparent that neither of the Evans' sons, Bob nor Eli, were interested in assuming the responsibility of managing Evans United Department Stores Company, Evans sold the chain of six stores to Belk.<ref name="ED-united" /><ref>Evans. (2005). pp. 30-33.</ref>
{{s-start}} {{succession box|title=Mayor of Durham, North Carolina |before=Daniel K. Edwards|after=Wense Grabarek| years= 1951 – 1963}} {{s-end}}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Emanuel J.}} Category:Politicians from Plainfield, New Jersey Category:Jewish American mayors Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Category:Mayors of Durham, North Carolina Category:1907 births Category:Jewish American people in North Carolina politics Category:1997 deaths Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century mayors of places in North Carolina