Linda Evans

Linda Sue Evans (born May 11, 1947) is an American radical leftist, who was convicted in connection with violent and deadly militant activities committed as part of her goal to free African Americans from white oppression. Evans was sentenced in 1987 to 40 years in prison for using false identification to buy firearms and for harboring a fugitive in the 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery, in which two police officers and a guard were killed, and Black Liberation Army members were wounded. In a second case, she was sentenced in 1990 to five years in prison for conspiracy and malicious destruction in connection with eight bombings including the 1983 United States Senate bombing. Her sentence was commuted in 2001 by President Bill Clinton because of its extraordinary length. Students for a Democratic Society Evans began her life as an activist by organizing demonstrations at Michigan State University during 1965. In 1967, Evans became a member of the East Coast chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). She stated that she became interested in the civil rights movement after getting attacked by police during a demonstration at the Pentagon. "When I first became a political activist, I was a pacifist. I had never experience real violence in my own life and naively hoped that it changed." Evans demonstrated her interest in anti-racism movements by supporting various groups championing Black, Native and Puerto Rican liberation causes. Evans' leadership role in SDS began after a conference held on July 15, 1969, at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. At this she announced that she would be traveling with six other anti-war activists to Hanoi to participate in the release of three U.S pilots who were being held as prisoners of war. At this conference, she also read a statement from SDS which declared the organization's support for the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. Almost a month later, on August 7, 1969, Evans returned from Hanoi along with the prisoners of war through Trans World Airlines. Soon after Evans return from Hanoi, SDS held various conferences so that she could relate her experiences in Hanoi. During these conferences Evans stated that "SDS is on the side of North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front", called out the U.S. as the aggressor, and spoke of the "extremely humane treatment" given to captured American GIs.