Evans was born in
Lufkin in
Angelina County in
East Texas, the son of Lysander Lee Evans and the former Bird Medford. He graduated
magna cum laude in 1927 from the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and in 1933 received a
Ph.D. from
Yale University in
New Haven,
Connecticut. He taught at the
University of Mississippi at
Oxford,
Mississippi (1928–1933), the Texas College of Arts and Industries—now known as
Texas A&M University–Kingsville—(1933–1934), the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (1934–1942), the
University of the South in
Sewanee,
Tennessee (1943–1944),
McMurry College in
Abilene (as dean),
Texas — now known as
McMurry University— (1953–1954) and Northwestern State College in
Natchitoches,
Louisiana,—now
Northwestern State University—in 1955-1959. In addition, Evans worked for the since defunct radio station
WDOD (AM) in
Chattanooga, Tennessee (1943–1944), the
Atomic Energy Commission in
Oak Ridge, Tennessee and
Washington, D.C. (1944–1952), the
Los Alamos project, the publication
Facts Forum for
H.L. Hunt and
Dan Smoot (1954–1955), and the
Jackson (Mississippi) Citizen's Council as managing editor of
The Citizen: A Journal of Fact and Opinion (1962-?), official publication of the
Citizens' Councils of America in Jackson. One of Evans' articles in
The Citizen, "How to Start a Private School" (1964), was republished as a small book and became influential in the South's burgeoning movement toward private day-schools to avoid
school desegregation. (These schools were sometimes labeled "
segregation academies" or "Christian academies" in the press, but virtually all now admit
African-American pupils.) Evans was also a member of the
John Birch Society, founded by
Robert W. Welch, Jr. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was a frequent contributor to the JBS monthly magazine,
American Opinion. Evans also published articles in the conservative magazines
National Review and
Human Events. Evans' other published writings include the books
The Secret War for the A-Bomb (1953),
Civil Rights Myths and Communist Realities (1965),
The Usurpers (1968), and
The Assassination of Joe McCarthy (1970), reflecting his belief in the revelations of communist subversion unveiled in the 1950s by
U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of
Wisconsin. The book
The Death of James Forrestal (1966) by "Cornell Simpson" has also been attributed to Evans, an attribution challenged by his son, M. Stanton Evans. Evans also lectured widely, even in small towns, mostly on anti-communist topics. Speaking in
Minden, Louisiana, in 1956, Evans likened the attack on segregation in the South to
communism. Evans was a supporter of
segregation who thought
Barry Goldwater was too liberal. == Educational philosophy ==