Call Number:

MC.801.11.015

Repository:

Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections

Extent:

.01 linear ft. (1 folder)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Ahmed Evans Must be Saved (HC.MC 801.11.015) Quaker and Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.

Date:

1969

Abstract:

This collection consists of 2 flyers, "Save Ahmed Evans" and "Ahmed Evans Must Be Set Free!" from September 1969. The fliers were likely sponsored, produced, and distributed in New York City by the Committee to Save Ahmed Evans, who wanted his death sentance commuted.

Ahmed Evans was born Fred Evans in 1931 in Greenville, SC to John and Ora Evans. The family moved to Cleveland in 1948, and Evans enlisted in the army. He served in Korea as a combat engineer. Upon returning to Cleveland, he worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He became politically active after heading Malcolm X deliver his "ballot or bullet" speech in 1964. Evans opened the Afro Culture Shop and Bookstore, which became a gathering space for Cleveland's Black Nationalist community and was targeted by the police.

On a July night in 1968, months of tension between the Cleveland Police Department and Evans, leader of the Black Nationalists of New Libya, boiled over in Cleveland's majority-Black Glenville neighborhood. Police and Evans' men exchanged fire, resulting in the deaths of seven. An all-white jury convicted Evans of seven first-degree murder charges, and he was sentenced to death. Evans was taken off death row due to the 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision. He died in prison in 1978 at age 46.

This collection consists of 2 flyers, "Save Ahmed Evans" and "Ahmed Evans Must Be Set Free!" from September 1969, both produced on a mimeograph machine. The fliers were likely sponsored, produced, and distributed in New York City by the Committee to Save Ahmed Evans. Save Ahmed Evans was an advocacy group demanding the commutation of the death sentence of Ahmed Evans, a Black man involved in the 1968 Glenville Shootout in Cleveland. One flyer was also sponsored by the New York University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

Both flyers demand Evans' freedom, assert that the trial was a racist sham, and suggest action items (i.e. demonstrations and letter-writing) for people wishing to get involved.

Two mimeographed fliers