Oral history with Donald Evans

              Oral history with Donald Evans
F341.5 . M57 vol. 747, pt. 1
Funding for this project provided by The Mississippi State Legislature, The Mississippi Humanities Council, The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage at the University of Southern Mississippi.
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Biography
Mr. Donald Evans grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Beginning in the summer of 1963, he attended Arkansas A and M College on a football scholarship. In the late 1960s, he was graduated from Arkansas A and M College, and he was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. In 1968, Mr. Evans married Hiawatha Williams. When he did not make the Minnesota Vikings team, he returned to Gulfport, and in 1969 began working as housing director at The William Bell Housing Association.
Because his father was president of the International Longshoremen's Association ( ILA) local in Gulfport, Mr. Evans grew up hearing and seeing the atmosphere of the ILA in the Port of Gulfport. Additionally, he experienced the Civil Rights Movement through his father's activism, providing him with a unique working knowledge of issues confronting African- Americans and longshoremen on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
In 1972, Mr. Evans began working as a longshoreman in the Port of Gulfport, and in 1980 he was elected as vice president of the ILA local. In 1989, he became president of the ILA local, and is currently serving in that capacity at this time.
Table of Contents
I. Childhood
II. Father's presidency of ILA local, Gulfport, 1951
III. Desegregating the Mississippi Gulf Coast beaches
IV. Financial leverage of African- Americans in the Port of Gulfport
V. Nonunion operations
VI. Reverend McElhaney
VII. College football
VIII. College life
IX. First day on the pier
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