Medford Bryan Evans

Medford Bryan Evans (1907–1989) was a college professor, author, editor and father of M. Stanton Evans.

Evans was born August 21, 1907 in Lufkin, Texas, the son of Lysander Lee Evans and Bird Medford Evans. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1927 and took a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1933. He taught at the University of Mississippi (1928-33), the Texas College of Arts and Industries—now known as Texas A&M University–Kingsville—(1933-34), the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (1934-42), the University of the South (1943-44), McMurry College—now known as McMurry University—(1953-54) and Northwestern State College—now known as Northwestern State University—in 1955-59.

In addition, Evans worked for radio station WDOD in Chattanooga, Tennessee (1943-44), the Atomic Energy Commission in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. (1944-52), H.L. Hunt's Facts Forum (1954-55), and the Jackson (Mississippi) Citizen's Council as managing editor of The Citizen: A Journal of Fact and Opinion (1962-?),^[1] official publication of the Citizens' Councils of America in Jackson.^[2] 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.^[3] (These schools were sometimes labeled "segregation academies" or "Christian academies" in the press.)

Evans was also a member of the John Birch Society (JBS). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was a frequent contributor to the JBS monthly magazine, American Opinion.

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,^[4] an attribution challenged by his son, M. Stanton Evans.^[5]

Educational philosophy

Evans contributed articles on educational trends to magazines (e.g. Harper's^[6]) and newspapers. His usual topics were the decline in classical education, the need for vocational education, and the use of public schools to promote social engineering. A typical paragraph, from "What Are We Teaching Our Children" in American Opinion, shows how he could touch on all three themes at once:

“

It is my considered opinion that the average graduate of a non-elite college today knows less than the average graduate of an accredited high school knew thirty years ago. You may ask: Less of what? If so, I reply: Less of almost any field you care to name, and less of a total of all fields. It is sometimes assumed that we have substituted science for the classics. But in the mass institutions this is certainly not true. We have abandoned the classics, but we have not put science in their place. The average college student in my state today does not know any Latin, but he does not know any physics either. It is pretty hard to say just what he does know. Of course we have a lot of bright young people, and some of them do put their brightness to excellent use. But there is not much you can depend on any of them knowing simply by virtue of the fact that they have college degrees.[7]

”

References

1. ^ Ed. James B. Lloyd, Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967 (University Press of Mississippi, 2009) ISBN 1604734116, pp. 157-158
2. ^ A critical survey of the Citizens' Councils that cites Evans appeared in Lindsley Armstrong Smith, "The Southern Tradition Baying: Race, Religion, and Rhetorical Redoubts," American Communication Journal, Vol. 10, Issue 2 (Summer 2008)
3. ^ Michael W. Fuquay, "Civil Rights and the Private School Movement in Mississippi," 1964–1971, in History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 42 Issue 2 (Summer 2002), pp. 159–180.
4. ^ "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, Andrew J. Bacevich (Book review)". The Ludwig Von Mises Institute. p. footnote 3. http://mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=356. Retrieved April 4, 2011. 
5. ^ David Martin (April 22, 2011). "News from the Mail Bag". www.dcdave.com. David Martin. http://www.dcdave.com/article5/110422.htm. Retrieved 25 April 2011. 
6. ^ Medford Bryan Evans, "Liberal Education and Vocational Training", Harper's, June 1944
7. ^ Medford Evans , "What Are We Teaching Our Children?" (americanopinionfoundation.com)

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Name	Evans, Medford Bryan
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Date of birth	1907
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Date of death	1989
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