Political Quotes

“It is with great pride that I speak on behalf of the centennial anniversary of the birth of the Honorable Melvin Herbert Evans. This celebration of Governor Evans' 100th birthday is both timely and symbolic. Evans was born in 1917, months after the transfer of the Virgin Islands from Denmark to the United States, when locals had no citizen rights and no mechanism for which they could have their own elected representation. A son of the soil, he was educated on St. Croix, valedictorian of his high school class on St. Thomas, and in 1944 earned his medical degree from Howard College of Medicine. He returned to St. Croix and was eventually Commissioner of Health of the Virgin Islands. In 1969, Evans was appointed Governor of the Virgin Islands by President Richard Nixon, earning him the distinction of being the territory's last appointed governor, but more importantly, the territory's first Black native governor. In 1971, he became the governor elected by the people of the Virgin Islands after a 1970 law which allowed residents to elect their governor. In 1978, he was elected to the House of Representatives in the 96th Congress. And after leaving Congress, he was an Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. Governor Evans personifies the evolution of the political maturity of the Virgin Islands.…”