[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 198 (Wednesday, December 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6973-S6974]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                Remembering the Reverend Dr. Clay Evans

  Mr. President, last Friday night was an amazing evening. I went to 
the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church on the South Side of Chicago, 
not too far from where the White Sox play baseball.
  There was a Friday night memorial service for the longtime pastor of 
that church, the Reverend Clay Evans. He actually divided the service 
up and said, Friday night is for the politicians and government people; 
Saturday morning will be the memorial service for the members of the 
church. A lot of people showed up on Friday night because a lot of us 
considered Clay Evans to be a friend.
  He was more than a friend. He was a legend. The Reverend Clay Evans 
died peacefully at his home the day before Thanksgiving at the age of 
94. Let me tell you a little bit about him.
  If you ever had the good fortune to witness the Reverend Dr. Clay 
Evans preach, you were lucky. With his rousing sermons, his soulful 
baritone voice and ``the Ship,'' which is what he called the legendary 
Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church choir behind him, Reverend Evans 
was mesmerizing.
  His sermons gave hope to the downhearted. His singing could bring you 
to your feet. His Sunday services were so moving and so uplifting that 
the legendary Sam Cooke used to come and attend for inspiration.
  Even in Chicago, the birthplace of modern Black gospel music, the 
home of Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, Mavis Staples, and so many 
others, the Reverend Clay Evans stood out for the power of his 
preaching.
  But it wasn't just his beautiful voice that drew people in. Clay 
Evans was a man of faith, integrity, and moral courage. In the 1960s, 
he helped persuade Dr. Martin Luther King to come to Chicago and use it 
as his base as Dr. King sought to expand the civil rights movement. It 
was not a popular position at the time, believe me.
  Chicago power brokers, fearful of the unrest in the streets, warned 
Black ministers: Don't let Dr. King into your churches. Many of them 
listened to that warning and turned him away--not Clay Evans.
  He invited Dr. King to speak at his church. He opened the doors of 
the ``Ship'' to Operation Breadbasket, the Southern Christian 
Leadership Conference's economic justice project. Then, he persuaded 
other Chicago ministers and churches to join him.
  He paid a price for it. Offers of construction loans he needed to 
build his church were withdrawn when he made this controversial 
decision. Building permits were withheld for several years.
  But Chicago, over time, became more just. Thanks to the work of 
Reverend Evans, Dr. Martin Luther King, and the man whom Evans 
ordained, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and many others, Operation 
Breadbasket helped to open up thousands of jobs for Black Chicagoans in 
previously all-White grocery chains and companies.
  Years ago, Reverend Evans told a Chicago Tribune reporter: ``I try to 
embody the principles of Christianity, and for me that means being 
dedicated to freedom and equality.'' For him, faith was not just what 
you believed; it was the way he lived.
  Clay Evans was born in 1925 into a large, church-going family in 
Brownsville, TN. His family were sharecroppers. He was one of nine 
kids. At night, he liked to listen to jazz music on the radio.
  He moved to Chicago in 1945, part of the Great Migration that has 
enriched that city in so many ways.
  The most successful man he knew in Brownsville, TN, was an 
undertaker, and that is what Clay Evans thought he would become in 
Chicago, but he couldn't afford the tuition for mortuary school. He 
took jobs where he found them. He worked at a pickle factory, as a 
window washer. He drove a truck delivering pies. He was working at the 
Brass Rail cocktail lounge in downtown Chicago when they prompted him 
to join in song and marveled at his voice. He might have been a 
successful nightclub performer, but he felt called to the ministry.
  He attended the Chicago Baptist Institute and was ordained a Baptist 
minister in 1950. He would later study at both the Northern Baptist 
Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago Divinity School.
  He founded the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in 1958 and 
served as pastor for 42 years. He used radio and later TV to bring his 
ministry to homes throughout the Midwest and South and to introduce 
Black gospel music to the Nation.
  Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, or ``The Ship,'' as it is 
affectionately known, quickly became one of the most influential 
churches in Chicago.
  He helped to launch the careers of nearly 90 up-and-coming young 
ministers, including Mother Consuella York, the first woman to be 
ordained a Baptist minister in the city of Chicago.
  He ordained the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and, in 1971, the two 
ministers cofounded Operation PUSH to encourage African-American self-
help.
  Carved into his wooden pulpit was one of his favorite sayings: It is 
no secret what God can do. What God did through his servant Clay Evans 
helped to increase hope and justice in Chicago and far beyond.
  I remember when, as a downstate Congressman, I made my early trips to

[[Page S6974]]

Chicago to meet the movers and the shakers. Reverend Clay Evans was 
high on that list, and, as luck would have it, at one of the dinners we 
were seated next to one another. He leaned over to me--I knew exactly 
who he was--and he said: Congressman, I am Reverend Clay Evans.
  I said: That is not what I heard. I heard you are Reverend Chicago.
  He laughed and he looked down. He said: Well, they call me that from 
time to time.
  That is the kind of respect that he commanded, not just because of 
his ministry but also because he was such an integral part of the faith 
scene in that big city.
  We got to be friends, and I was always looking forward to the times 
we could get together.
  With a choir led by his sister, Lou Della Evans-Reid, Pastor Evans 
produced and recorded over 40 gospel albums--11 that charted on and 2 
that topped the Billboard Gospel Albums Chart.
  His first No. 1 gospel hit was called ``I'm Going Through,'' released 
in 1993. The title song talks about staying on the righteous road, no 
matter how steep the climb, how large the obstacles.
  Reverend Evans would sing:

       I'm going through. I'm going through no matter what they 
     may do. The world behind, heaven in view, I'm going through.

  The Reverend Clay Evans walked that righteous road. He overcame 
obstacles and widened the road so others could follow. He is certainly 
going to be missed, and the crowd of speakers Friday night is just 
evidence of the many lives that he touched.
  My wife Loretta and I want to offer our condolences to his wife of 
nearly 74 years, Lutha Mae, their children, their grandchildren, and 
their great-grandchildren, and all of those in the family of Clay Evans 
who tried to maintain a warm smile at a time of sadness for many of 
them.
  What he has left behind is something that we will all point to for 
years to come.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.