W. Leonard Evans Jr., founder of Tuesday magazine, dies at 92

By Trevor Jensen
Chicago Tribune
(June 27, 2007)
W. Leonard Evans Jr., a pioneering African-American advertising man, published a magazine aimed at black readers called Tuesday that came with many Sunday newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s.

Mr. Leonard, 92, died Tuesday, May 22, in Tucson, Ariz., after suffering a severe stroke, said his wife, Maudelle.

Mr. Evans formed Tuesday Publications and began putting out Tuesday magazine, which featured articles on positive contributions by blacks, in the 1960s. He added Tuesday At Home magazine in the early 1970s. The magazines were inserted into the Sunday editions of 23 newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times and later, the Chicago Tribune. The magazines reached more than 4 million subscribers, a 1973 Tribune article reported. The magazines got their name from the day that magazines for blacks had traditionally been printed in the North so they could get to an audience in the South by the end of the week.

Born in 1914 in Louisville, but raised on Chicago's South Side, Mr. Evans attended Fisk University in Nashville for two years before receiving a business degree from the University of Illinois. In 1975, he received an Illini Achievement Award from the U. of. I. Alumni Association.

He worked as an advertising executive with Arthur Meyerhoff's firm in Chicago before starting an agency in New York that targeted African-Americans, his wife said. He fought to convince clients that black consumers were an attractive market, his wife said.

"It wasn't easy to get business to advertise to the black market," his wife said. "He did what couldn't be done, that was his focus, always."

He made the same argument throughout his career. In 1968 he gave a speech to the Audit Bureau of Circulations in Chicago titled, "Black is a Growth Industry."

In the mid-1950s, Mr. Evans started the National Negro Network, a collection of about 40 radio stations that aimed shows like "The Story of Ruby Valentine" at black listeners.

Mr. Evans retired to Arizona in the mid-1970s.

Mr. Evans also is survived by two sons, Leonard and Midian.

Services have been held.

Listen to a fascinating 1965 radio interview with Tuesday publisher, W. Leonard Evans

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