During Evans’ lifetime, the Democratic Party exercised almost complete control over Texas politics. Some African-Americans in Texas—like E.L. Sublett—threw their support behind Democrats in an effort to elevate the interests of African-Americans in the party’s platform. Evans (front row, left), on the other hand, allied with the Republican Party, traveling to Chicago in 1932 to attend the party’s convention. While party affiliations differed across the African-American community in Texas, a mutual recognition existed that preventing blacks from helping to select the candidate of their choice in primaries inhibited their voting rights.