Mrs. Lillie C. and her husband, Rev. J. R. Evans, settled in Miami’s Colored Town/Overtown before the 1920s. He was the pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 310 Northwest 9 Street. She was an elementary teacher and principal. Both Rev. and Mrs. Evans graduated from Roger Williams University in Nashville, Tennessee. After graduating from the same college as their parents, the children, James, Ruby, and George, continued their graduate and professional training at MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Meharry Medical College, and Columbia, and Catholic Universities. Later, James, worked for the federal government in Washington, DC, Ruby moved to Tuskegee, Alabama where she taught in a public high school, and George became a medical doctor and practiced in Durham, North Carolina.

Mrs. Evans began her career in Miami’s Colored in 1918 as a teacher at the (George) Washington Graded School then located on Northwest 12^th. She was soon appointed the principal. As principal, she took on a leading role in keeping pace with new trend in public education in the black community. The students and faculty at the Washington Graded School expanded to overflowing and the school was moved to 20th Street to Dunbar Elementary.

In 1927, Booker T. Washington Senior High School opened with both elementary and high school departments. Located at 1200 Northwest 6^th Avenue, it was the first school in Dade County and South Florida to provide a 12^th grade education for black children that was recognized by school officials, the Board of Public Instructions.

In addition to her school duties in Dade County, Mrs. Evans was on the faculty several simmers at Florida A & M University then Florida A & M College. Years later when a new elementary school was built in Liberty City it was named to honor the work of Mrs. Lillie C. Evans.