A Life Full of Adventures

Evelyn “Evie” Jones Rich ’54 likes to tell the story about the time during her senior year when, as the only Black residential student at Bryn Mawr, a Main Line restaurant refused to serve her and a Black friend. Her classmates insisted she tell President McBride, who consulted with the College’s lawyers and decided to sue. The restaurant capitulated, and all spring, on McBride’s recommendation, they tested other restaurants “from Philadelphia to Paoli,” Rich says. “I never ate so well.”

Bryn Mawr kick-started her activism. After graduation, she worked with the Congress of Racial Equality, where she and her husband, Marvin Rich, helped organize the Freedom Rides. Even today, Rich is still showing up to protests and picket lines.

Rich reflects on how Marvin, who passed away in 2018, always told her: “No one wants to hear about your problems; they want to hear about your challenges and opportunities.” The book shows how this motto imbues her life, from stories about talking her way into a job as a “paper girl” for the Philadelphia Inquirer to increasing vaccination rates at the New York City public high school where she was principal.

Her favorite story in the book is about a harrowing trip through Uganda in the 1970s. Rich earned a Ph.D. in African Studies and worked for the Africa-America Institute leading teacher trips through Africa. Uganda was then ruled by the brutal dictator Idi Amin. Worried about the safety of her group, which included several white teachers, she managed to get them out of the country using flattery, bottles of scotch, and sheer force of will.

“I put in a lot of adventures because my life has been a life of adventures,” she says. “I’m a very lucky lady to have lived this life.”

What inspired you to write this book?

“I never, ever thought I would write a memoir. However, it’s part of my activism. About a year ago, the people at NCAC came to me and said they wanted to give Marvin (who was integral to the founding of the National Coalition Against Censorship) the Founders Award at a gala, and they wanted me to accept the award on his behalf. I had the opportunity to talk about Marvie, and I talked about the First Amendment and the freedom of expression and assembly.

“There were book publishers at this gala, and one of them came to me and said, ‘You were terrific, but you should write a memoir.’ I told Helen (Thurston ’74) about this, and she said, ‘I know an agent.’ I don’t know anything about publishing, but I know you have to have an agent. The agent happened to have been at the same gala when I was talking about Marvie. She said, ‘I think I can sell your memoir. Never in the history of publishing have they given a contract to a 92-year-old lady.’ 

“She called me up the next day, she said, ‘I have a publisher and editor for you, and I want you to start on your memoir.’

“I have a wonderful daughter-in-law, and my daughter-in-law over the years has said to me ‘you should write this down for your grandchildren, or your great-grandchildren’ because she knows about my adventures. Over the past 10 or 15 years, occasionally, I would write down some of my adventures for my great-grandchildren. So, I stole some of those adventures for my memoir.”

 

“I wanted to change my life, and I wanted to change the lives of the people around me and the larger community.”

How did your experience at Bryn Mawr shape your life and activism?

“I had an opportunity to go to several colleges, and I picked Bryn Mawr because I thought it would give me an opportunity to get the education I was looking for. That was, to continue my belief that the life I was living was not acceptable and there was something else out there for me to do. I took a chance, and I made a really good decision, because I’m a risk-taker and risk-takers make and promote change. I wanted to change my life, and I wanted to change the lives of the people around me and the larger community.

“This college, I think, exemplifies what higher education is all about. This college is a training ground for changing the world.”

What advice do you give young people today about advocating for civil rights and social justice?

“I would say to young people today: The opportunity — especially today — to stand up for the right and justice is greater than it has ever been.

“The tools and the actions that will emerge in the next decade will be different from the tools and actions we took, but they will be there, because I haven’t written off this country. I have met too many young people who believe, as I, in a democracy, and what we have to do to protect it now and move it forward. It’s great to be 25, but I’ll tell you now, it’s great to be 92, almost 93. Because people, when they see me on the picket line and hear my speeches, they say I’m inspiring.”