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House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr.
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Dr. Marion Orr
Be not therefore anxious for the morrow.
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Matthew chapter 6.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
Each day will have its troubles, but.
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Dr. Marion Orr
By God's grace they can be survived.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
Hello everyone and welcome to academic life. This is a podcast for your academic journey and beyond. I'm the producer and your host, Dr. Christina Gessler, and today I am so pleased to be joined by Dr. Marion Orr, who is the author of House of Digs, the Rise and Fall of America's Most Consequential black Congressman Charles C. Diggs, Jr. Welcome to the show, Dr. Orr.
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Dr. Marion Orr
Well, thank you. Thank you for inviting me on. I'm very excited.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
I'm so glad that you're here and that we get to learn about Mr. Dinks Jr. From you. Before we do that, will you please tell us about yourself?
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Dr. Marion Orr
Oh, sure. Well, I work at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. I'm a political science professor. I specialize in urban politics, in race and politics. I spent a good part of my academic career studying cities. I teach courses on cities, also teach a course on African American politics. I've been teaching that course for over two two decades. I became a political scientist in large part from my experience as an undergraduate student at Savannah State College in Savannah, Georgia. Savannah, Georgia is my hometown, where I was born and raised. And I went to the local historically black college there. In fact, I commuted, stayed with my mom and dad and went to school college. During the day at Savannah State, I got interested in political science. I met a political scientist named Haynes Walton Jr. Haynes, like the T shirts that you buy. Walton Haynes. Walton was perhaps the greatest political scientist or one of the greatest political scientists of his, of his generation. And he taught at Savannah State for 25 years before moving to the University of Michigan. And Professor Walton introduced me to Charles Diggs Jr. And for many years I've known about Congressman Diggs. I went off to graduate school to study political science and I learned still more about the congressman. And so starting about 10, 11 years ago, I started researching and writing what's now in the book of House of Diggs, the Rise and Fall of America's Most Consequential Black Congressman. Charles C. Diggs, Jr. So by and large, I'm a political scientist who've been working in this field for a number of years. And I'm excited about the new book that's just come out and we get.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
To meet in a way. Professor Welton, in the acknowledgments, there are so many people who you thank. It really shows how many people it takes to support a book like this. You went to so many archives. As you mentioned a moment ago, it took you 10 years to write this book. How did you go about framing this book?
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Dr. Marion Orr
Well, you're right, I did visit lots of archives. Charles Diggs Jr. Left his congressional and personal papers to Howard University in Washington D.C. he left some 750 boxes of his papers there. So I had a lot of material to work with from his own personal papers. Let me add rarely seen personal papers. Also visited several Archives. I went to six presidential archives because Congressman Dige was a prolific writer of memoranda and letters to presidents and cabinet secretaries. I found a voluminous database from the letters and correspondence in the presidential libraries and in Michigan, where the Congressman was born and raised. There are several archives there that I was able to access. So I put this together, really, from a lot of archival work and interviews with the Congressman's family members and those who worked with him on Capitol Hill. It was a huge task. I enjoyed it tremendously. I learned a lot, and I think readers will learn a lot about this remarkable American who's almost been forgotten. And so let me just add that I. It's as a biography, it's chronological, it's from birth to death. And I cover his rise in Michigan politics. And I cover his 25 years of hard, dedicated, devoted work on Capitol Hill.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
The book is 23 chapters, plus the conclusion and the epilogue. There's an extensive bibliography and so many notes. For listeners who are going to be inspired to dig in and learn even more about him after the episode, you give us a peek at what's to come. In the prologue, it says, this book details Congressman Diggs extraordinary life. It describes his experiences as a son of the Great Migration, confronting racism as a young officer in the U.S. military in segregated Alabama, his years as a successful funeral home director, his election as state senator, his role at the trial of Emmett Till's white murderers, his friendship with Martin Luther King Jr. His impact on federal civil rights policy, his role in creating the Congressional Black Caucus, his fight against apartheid in South Africa, and many other examples of his work as a public servant. As we start in the book, we encounter him in childhood. We learn about his life growing up in Detroit, Michigan, and we see how the Great Depression impacted his parents. Can you set the scene for us by taking us way back to his early childhood, please?
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Dr. Marion Orr
Oh, certainly, certainly. Congressman Diggs was the ch was a child of the great black migration. His parents, Charles Diggs Sr. And his mother, Mamie Diggs, moved to Detroit in around 1913 or so. And they, the family, that is the mother and father, build and establish a funeral home there in. In Detroit, which became known as the House of Diggs. So the title of the book is taken from the name of the funeral home that Charles Diggs Junior's parents founded in the 1920s. Let me add that the House of Diggs Funeral Home became a major business enterprise. And by the 1940s, the House of Diggs was burying more than half of the black residents of Detroit in fact, half of the people in Michigan being buried by the House of Diggs. His father, the congressman's father, Charles Diggs senior, parlayed the success of the House of Diggs Funeral Home into electoral politics. In fact, the elder Diggs in 1936 became the first black American elected to the Michigan State Senate as a Democrat. Okay. And so Charles Diggs Jr. Will really get this push and model for public service from his father. His father served several terms in the Michigan State Senate and was really. Charles Diggs senior was really a major, major civic and political leader in Detroit and Michigan for about 30, 40 years, beginning in the 30s, leading until his death in 1967. So Diggs came from. The congressman came from comfortable, comfortable circumstances because of the success of, of the House of Dix. He was somewhat part of the black elite, if you will, in Detroit during his childhood.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
And we see Charles Diggs Jr. As a child and we get a sense in some ways that he's in his dad's shadow. His dad is a larger than life figure in that town. And you describe him, and you quote other people as describing young Charles as shy, self conscious. He was uncomfortable with his glasses, he was a little overweight, he didn't really like attention. He was described as a very private person. So when we meet him in early childhood, it doesn't quite seem likely that he's going to end up running for Congress. But a number of events happen in life to bring him along that path. But going back to his father, there's a couple of places where his father really models for him, what it means to have a comeback. In the first chapter, we see the huge impact of the Great Depression, not just on Americans, but really how hard hit the black population was. And then later, his father has a. He's prosecuted, he maintains his innocence, he has a comeback into the legislature, and then they won't seat him.
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Dr. Marion Orr
Well, yes, this is true. Congressman Diggs father was really a phenomenal leader in the city of Detroit. He was a man of short stature, but he had a big personality and a big impact on especially black Detroit. The Diggs senior, however, as you alluded to, would, would eventually in 1948, go to state prison. There was a huge scandal in the Michigan state government in the early 40s. And about, I remember maybe 60 or so legislators, including, including state senator Charles Diggs senior, got caught up in a bribery of prosecution. And the father, as you alluded to, eventually would go to prison for 15 months for this bribery charge, a charge that he. A charge that he. That he denied, he always maintained he was innocent. In fact, he argued that he was targeted largely because he was a black American, a vocalist, black American leader. Well, Charles Diggs senior comes out of state prison and he runs for his state senate seat again. And he wins. He wins. But the Republicans who control the Michigan state legislature refused to seat him. They argue that he was a man of low morals because he was convicted. And they refused. They refused to seat Diggs senior into his old seat. And they had a special election to fill the seat. And the person who won the seat was Charles Diggs Jr. He would pick up the banner and run for his father's seat. Let me add, somewhat reluctantly, as you alluded to, Diggs Jr. Really wanted to focus his career around helping his parents build and sustain the house of Diggs Funeral Home. And he's quoted as saying, I'll leave politics to others, but I'll be focused on, on. On the business. But once this happened to his father and once the Republicans refused to seat his father, he was encouraged by his father and family members to run and he reluctantly ran for the state senate and he won his father's old seat. And he held that seat for a couple of terms. That's how he got into electoral politics. Three years later, he would run for Congress and he would never look back.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
The book, fortunately helps us look back a little bit. Often when we hear stories of politicians, it's sort of this inevitable path forward. There's no zigzags. There's no doubt about it. Of course they were born to be an orator. They were born to, to be a policymaker. And this book really takes us into the granular level of what was really going on for, for Dix Jr. We see a couple of places where his life was on track, the way he wanted it. And then things beyond his control happened. One was when he was at college and then he was drafted. And another is the story you shared about his father not being seated. And you point out in the book the huge hypocrisy of that. There is a white man serving who also has a conviction and he's been seated. And so they make the unprecedented decision to remove his seat. And now they have two people they won't allow to serve even though they've been elected. And so Dinks Jr. Is actually at law school and as you said, he's building his life and he wants to really work in his parents funeral home. I think one of the things that people might not have the context for is what the funeral home really meant in that time and place. You outline the effect of segregation on things that I think people sometimes don't think about, like respectfully tending to the dead and burying them. And also what the funeral home meant in life as well. It was supporting children's sports teams. It was having an annual Mother's Day event. It gave to a number of community causes. You point out in another place that when people came as tourists, they would go there and then they would send postcards from the House of Dick's Funeral Home. Can we take a moment to situate this properly in its place and culture?
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Dr. Marion Orr
Well, sure. Thank you for asking about, about this. When, when Dick Senior decided to form the funeral home back in the 1920s, he understood the reverence that black Americans gave to the dead and burying the dead. And I note in the book that this is something that goes back to our black Americans African heritage, where proper burial was really important and expected. So Diggs Senior gets into the funeral home business because he recognized, he recognized the value that black Americans have to proper funeral burials. In particular, African Americans, Black Americans like to see their dead look good in, in death, so that being a good embalmer, being a good mortician so that the body in death could look very good was very, very important in the black American cultural heritage. And the Diggs Funeral Home had a national reputation of having some of the best, best embalmers are in the country. And so people flock to the House of Digs to have their loved ones buried by Charles Diggs father and the others that work for this huge, growing, growing enterprise. Let me just add, because many of the black Americans who lived in Detroit during this time were migrants from the South. The House of Digs had a reputation down south because many of these people would actually be buried in the South. Their body would be taken care of or maybe a funeral in Detroit. But many of these black Americans who migrated to Detroit wanted their final resting place to be back in their homes in Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, so that many people back in the South, Black Americans knew about the House of Diggs in Detroit because many of their relatives and friends bodies were handled by the House of Digs in Detroit and then shipped down for burial in the South. So the House of Digs was just a huge enterprise. As you noted, they were so popular, they actually produced postcards. And black Americans who would come visit Detroit would go and tour and tour the House of Digs. They will leave with postcards and mail these postcards back to their relatives and friends back home. It was a important community institution in Detroit, as you indicated, it put on and supported a youth sports league. They had a huge college scholarship program. They honored black mothers in Detroit, and they supported the House of Digs. And the Diggs family supported local causes like the NAACP and other institutions. So the House of Diggs made the Diggs family part of the elite in Detroit. And they had a wonderful positive reputation among black Americans who lived in Detroit. Let me just add very quickly that Charles Diggs senior, the father, was a wonderful businessman. He grew the business, but he was also very generous. Very generous. If you didn't have enough money to bury your loved ones, the House of Digs will try to work it out for you. I write in the book, for example, that at one point, a fire destroyed the home of a family in Detroit, and Charles Diggs senior, in the House of Diggs, buried the family at no cost. So the House of Diggs had a very, very good reputation. And people in Detroit would brag about having their relatives buried by the House of Diggs. The House of Digs had wonderful embalmers. They had wonderful undertakers, people who would direct the funeral. And so if you had a funeral at the House of Diggs, you know that you would have a funeral that started on time, that had all the right things in place. And you will come away thinking, wow, they put my father, they put my mother or my sister away in high fashion.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
Experian, you tell us in the acknowledgments that among the family interviews were ones that you did with Charles Diggs Jr. S first wife and that she is telling you in one of the interviews that she's 90, so she'd like to have the opportunity to read the book soon because it was such an undertaking. You know, it took 10 years just to research it. And was it from speaking directly with her that you learned how House of Diggs got its name?
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Dr. Marion Orr
It is, yes. Yes. Juanita Diggs is still alive. She must be 95 or so now. And I just talked to her a few days ago, and she's doing quite well. This was Charles Dick's first wife. He was married four times, and he married Juanita in 1948, if I recall correctly. And when they went out on their honeymoon, they went down, they went to New York City and they were dining at a Chinese restaurant. And the story is that Juanita noticed that the restaurant was staffed largely by family members. And the restaurant was called, and she could not remember the exact name, but it was called some like a house of whatever. And she told Charles Diggs, her new husband there, he said, listen, your father's trying to get a new name for the funeral home. It was simply called Diggs Funeral Home at the time. And Juanita suggested House of Diggs because of the Chinese restaurant they were dining that evening. She noticed that many family members work for the house, work for the funeral home, just like family members in the Chinese restaurant. And so she suggested maybe your father should name the funeral home House of Diggs. And it became the House of Diggs, largely because of suggestion that Juanita Diggs made to her new husband, Charles Diggs.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
Jr. We see a number of formative moments in Charles Diggs Jr. Younger life. One was when he went to high school. His English teacher, who I believe was Alvin Loving, if I have the name correctly, he was having a debate team and he really worked with young Charles on his oratory skills, on his confidence in public speaking, and seems to be a key figure in helping him go from a really sort of quiet, reserved, you know, insecure as teenagers are person, to someone who felt confident in public speaking. Another is what we've been talking about. His father had won his seat back. They wouldn't seat him. And so there was a special election, and he really urged young Charles to leave law school and come and run for. And fill the seat. But another moment I'd like to revisit is in chapter three. He's been drafted into the Tuskegee Airmen there in Alabama, and he has, in many ways, a completely different experience than he had in Detroit.
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Dr. Marion Orr
Yes, well, this is true. Diggs would go to Alabama during World War II. He was drafted in the Second World War, and he ended up in Tuskegee, Alabama, as a part of the Tuskegee Airfield there in Tuskegee, Alabama. This was the home of the famed Tuskegee Airmen that many people, many people may be familiar with. There's a group of black men who were trained to fly airplanes in the Second World War. This came about because of protests by black Americans who wanted fair and better treatment for blacks in the military. So Diggs goes down to Alabama. It's not his first trip south. He actually spent a semester at Fisk University in. In Nashville, Tennessee. But the military is his most long, longest experience in the Deep South. And I think you're probably referring to the experience I lay out in the third chapter of the book, where Diggs is there in Alabama, and he and his buddies are about to board a bus to go to a neighboring town to go and party, you know, go out and have dinner and go to a dance joint. And so as he was boarding the bus on this particular day, along with his fellow Tuskegee Airmen, Diggs stepped on the bus, and he said to the white bus driver, hello, buddy. He called the white bus driver, quote, buddy. And for some reason, this made the bus driver very angry. And he pulled out a gun and threatened to kill Charles Diggs Jr. For calling him buddy. In fact, the. The bus driver said to Charles Diggs Jr. Don't you call me buddy. I'm not your buddy. And if you did not have that uniform on, I would blow your brains out. Do not call me buddy. And Diggs was just taken aback by that. He let his guard down, I believe, and forgotten where he was, that he was in Alabama. And what's interesting here is that from what I can tell, Diggs Never shared this story with anyone that I can determine. He didn't share with any of the oral history interviews that he conducted over the years. So this was perhaps the most frightening, frightening experience of Diggs. He was 21 years old at the time, and he kept this, he kept this to himself. And I suspect that many things like this happen to black Americans during the 40s, 50s and 60s, many mean and ugly things that white folk did to us. And many of them, many of them, like Charles Diggs, probably simply did not want to talk about it because it would get so painful to remember. So he had a really interesting sort of experience in Alabama, experience with racism up front, experience in Alabama as a military person, watching how white civilians treated them, treated him and other military men as if they were to use the title of one book, half Americans. So he had a very, very eye opening experience for those, what, a year or so that he lived in Alabama. And this would shape his views as he goes to Congress some years later.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
You tell us in the book that the people of Detroit elected him to Congress and he cared very much about his constituents, but he knew as well that he was there to represent the needs of all black Americans across the country. In chapter three, there's another moment that I don't want listeners to miss when they read the book where he's. It sounds like in the mess hall. And he's not allowed to sit with his white colleagues, but German prisoners are.
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Dr. Marion Orr
Yes, this was something that was really, really hurtful and painful for Charles Diggs and other black military personnel. You're right. Because of segregation and Jim Crow policies down south, Diggs and his black Tuskegee Airmen colleagues were segregated in certain public spaces and restaurants and what have you. But the German prisoners were allowed to sit in areas where Diggs and his colleagues were not allowed to sit. And for Diggs, this was really, really highlighted the undemocratic nature of Jim Crow and racial segregation. Something that he would remember for years and many other black military personnel will remember that in many, in some instances, the German prisoners of war got better treatment than the black military personnel.
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Dr. Christina Gessler
In the previous chapter, Chapter two, where we were learning about his father and his father's impact on Detroit, we learn about the passage of the Diggs law. Listeners can find more about that on page 23. And on that page you say, papa. Diggs legacy, however, would not be a single piece of legislation, his success as a businessman, or the role he played in bringing black people into Detroit's political mainstream. It would be his son, Charles Dinks Jr. He's an only child, and as you mentioned, his father's business did quite well, and he ended up having a comfortable upbringing. And at one point in the book, you talk about how he's working at the funeral home, but yet he still spends beyond his means. And his mom is always the one who will give him extra money. And now he goes to Congress, where he serves, as you pointed out, for more than a decade. And he. You describe him as someone who has a great skill in bringing people together. When he arrives, there's. There's only two other black congressmen, and you put him sort of in company with them and contrast how very different their approaches and styles were. And yet Here comes Diggs Jr. And he's determined to be someone who can really bring people together. Can. Can you paint that scene for us where he arrives and he really has a very different approach than most people who are there on the floor?
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Dr. Marion Orr
Yeah. Well, yes. Diggs gets elected in 1954, and he arrives in Congress in January of 1955. At the time, there are only two other black members of Congress, both in the House. Charles, I'm sorry. William Dawson was the congressman, the black congressman from Chicago, a very conservative politician and black leader. Conservative on issues around race in particular. Dawson was closely tied to the Democratic machine in Chicago, and he was very constrained in terms of some of the policies, especially around race, that he tended to avoid. The other black member of Congress at the time was Adam Clayton Powell. Powell had arrived in Congress about 10 years prior to Diggs. And Powell, as I describe in the book, was much more militant on racial issues than Bill Dawson of Chicago. Let me add that Dawson arrived in Congress in 1943, having been elected in 1942. Adam Clayton Powell was a minister of one of the largest black congregations in the country, and he came from Harlem. And Powell was a militant on racial issues. And beginning in 1945, when he arrives until about 1956, 57, when Dr. King, Martin Luther King, comes to the scene. Adam Clayton Powell is perhaps the most uncompromising black leader on civil rights issues nationally. So when Diggs arrived, he learns very quickly that the black militant, if you will, Adam Clayne Powell, and the black conservative, William Dawson, really did not get along. There was not much communication between the two black Congress members. Biggs came to Congress with a view that black Americans had to have a broad coalition of supporters, that you had to have conservatives and militants and those in the middle, if you will, in order to push through Congress civil rights legislation. So Biggs charted, I argue a middle road, a much more strategically moderate approach to trying to build coalitions in Congress and indeed outside of Congress. And I maintain and argue that given the nature of Congress, given the nature and the structure and the function of that institution, that Diggs moderate, strategically politically moderate approach made him an effective legislator. He was able to build coalitions across party lines and within the fragile Democratic coalition that controlled Congress during much of his career. So Diggs felt very strongly, very strongly that the best vehicle for changing civil rights policies for black Americans were for black Americans to be part of the Democratic Party and that post New Deal coalition that focused on social reform. And at the time between the two parties, it was really the Democratic Party that was pushing, at least on the national level, for social reform and civil rights legislation. And he felt very strongly that he had to use the party, the Democratic Party, which he was a member of and which controlled the Congress, that he had to use that party to advance his goals through Congress.
- [38:47]
Dr. Christina Gessler
It seems like a good time to ask you to unpack his work behind the scenes with Martin Luther King Jr. It's building on where we are in the conversation. It's a key part of the book and it's an important part of his legacy.
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Dr. Marion Orr
Yes, Diggs. Let me just say Diggs firmly believed that it was important to have this broadband, broad based coalition that you could not achieve matters solely through the Democratic Party, that you had to have outside interest groups and others working to advance the cause of civil rights. Diggs became friendly with Martin Luther King Jr. When Dr. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. 56. In fact, Diggs, using the radio program that his funeral home produced, raised some $10,000 for Dr. King and the Montgomery bus boycott. And Diggs would go down to Montgomery during the boycott and give to King and his leaders some $10,000 to support the cause there. And this will begin the relationship that these two young folk, two young leaders would have. That is, Dr. King, who about this time was 26 years old, and Charles Diggs, who is like 32 years old. The two men would become friendly and they will work in tandem to address civil rights issues. For example, when Charles Diggs as a congressman would go down south to make a speech, he would always contact Dr. King to find out who were some of the leaders in the community that Diggs should talk to once he got on the ground down south. And so, yes, they had a very close relationship. During the 1965 Selma movement that led to the Voting Rights Act, Martin King got arrested and he called on his friend Charles Diggs to bring a congressional delegation to Selma to highlight the issue of voting rights in Alabama. Diggs put together a 15 member delegation that came down to Selma, met with Dr. King, met with some of the local leaders there. So it was a very, very close relationship that these two men had. In fact, documents show them using their first names. In fact, I have letters where Diggs is writing Dr. King and he refers to Dr. King as Martin and Marty. And I've learned, and only close friends of Dr. King called him Martin or Marty. Moreover, the FBI files that I was able to gather indicate that the FBI concluded that Diggs and King were close associates. So it was a very, very important. A relationship that developed and of course ended when Dr. King was murdered and assassinated in 1968.
- [42:31]
Dr. Christina Gessler
Another pivotal moment that you bring us to in the book is when there's the trial of Emmett Till's killers. Can, can you take us into that? And for listeners who aren't familiar with who Emmett Till was or what happened to him, can you unpack that for us, please?
- [42:49]
Dr. Marion Orr
Diggs was sworn into office in January of 1955. And the summer of that year, a young Chicago boy, 14 year old boy named Emmett Till, went to the Delta, Mississippi to visit his relatives down in Mississippi. And Emmett Till ended up being killed by white men down in Mississippi. There was some incident that happened in a store down in Money, Mississippi. And Emmett Till was accused of flirting, if you will, with the white woman who worked in the store. And her husband and half brother eventually murdered Emmett Till. And they had a trial for the two white men. And Diggs decided as a new congress member that he would go down to Mississippi and observe the trial of those two white men who were at the time accused of murdering Emmett Till. And so Diggs spent five days at the trial, these two men. And what I learned from my research, the impact Diggs had on the black witnesses who at first were reluctant to come forward because it was very dangerous in the 1950s, indeed the 60s, to. For a black person to accuse a white person of a crime. And so what I learned from my research is that Diggs presence at the trial had a big and positive impact on the reluctant black witnesses who told reporters and friends that after the trial that they were encouraged to come forward and to point an accusing finger at the two white men at the trial because of the support and encouragement they got from Congressman Diggs. One of the witnesses is quoted as saying that looking out and seeing that powerful black American from the federal government sitting in the courtroom, gave him the courage to point out at the trial the two men who he saw murdered Emmett Till. Now, as you know, the. The jury came back and acquitted the two white men, which was not unusual in Mississippi in the 1950s. Diggs presence there not only helped with the white, I'm sorry, the black witnesses, but it also, I would argue, brought additional media attention to the question of voting rights and civil rights for black Americans in Mississippi and the South. Because he was a new member of Congress, because he was a black member of Congress, it attracted more media attention, I believe, than had he not attended the trial. So he had a big impact. And let me add very quickly here is that Diggs noted very early on that his election to Congress in 1954, although he represented Detroit, he made it clear at this trial of Emmett Till's murderers that he was not going to be confined solely to being a congressman for Detroit or Michigan, that he wanted to be a Congress member for all of America. And so his going down to Mississippi in 1955 was really the beginning of him indicating and demonstrating and showing that he was not going to be simply a Detroit Congress member, but a congressperson who cared about a wide range of issues affecting Americans across the country.
- [47:30]
Dr. Christina Gessler
And listeners can find even more in chapter 10, called on the Scene Digs at the Trial of Emmett Till's murderers. Chapter 11 is about the work to desegregate commercial air travel. Chapter 12 takes on fighting discrimination in the US military, both on and off face base. Chapter 13 listeners can find even more about the stories you've been sharing about his relationship that he built with Martin Luther King, Jr. We're starting to come close to the end of our time together, but I would really like to take at least a few moments to talk about his work in founding the Congressional Black Caucus, which is the focus of chapter 14.
- [48:11]
Dr. Marion Orr
Yes, well, this was perhaps one of the most significant contributions of Congressman Charles Diggs, Jr. Is that he was the founder and the first chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, which today is the largest caucus in the Congress and perhaps the most powerful black political organization in the nation. Today, There are some 62 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Now let me tell you, listeners, very quickly how the caucus developed and the role that Diggs played in 1957. John H. Johnson, who was the publisher and owner of Ebony and Jet magazines, which were the premier black magazines in America in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. John H. Johnson wrote a letter to William Dawson, the congressman from Chicago, Adam Clayton Powell from New York, and Charles Diggs from Detroit. And what Johnson said in that letter is simple. He said that you three should form what he called a Negro caucus. Okay? The three of them should come together. And if the three of them came together in one voice, they would be much more powerful. That was the rationale that John H. Johnson laid out for his push for a Negro caucus. Now, what I found in the archives is that Adam Clayton Powell dismissed the suggestion. William Dawson never responded. But I found a wonderful letter to John H. Johnson from Congressman Diggs. He responded in a very intelligent and thoughtful way to this proposal. And what the Congressman said to Mr. Johnson in his letter in 1957 was simple. He said, there's only three of us, and I don't think we ought to confine ourselves into a caucus, that we would be too small. But he did not dismiss the idea. What Diggs said to Mr. Johnson in this letter was that perhaps once the number of black members enlarge, maybe then we may consider forming a Negro caucus. And it turned out in 1965, I believe, Diggs brought together the six black members of the House. At the time, there were only six of them. But at that point, he felt that maybe they could work together around issues affecting black Americans. And so they formed with, under Diggs suggestion, a group they labeled the Democratic Select Committee. That's what Diggs called this organization of six black members in 1965. And that group of six black members became the Democratic Select Committee. And it would evolve in 1971 into what we now know as the Congressional Black Caucus. So the idea behind the Congressional Black Caucus was generated by this 1957 letter from John H. Johnson. And it would be Diggs who would pick up the idea and begin to implement it by forming this Democratic Select Committee, which eventually evolved into the Congressional Black caucus. In 1971, the caucus would begin to mobilize and organize around issues affecting black Americans. And right in that chapter that you mentioned, they're meeting with President Nixon and the challenges they had with getting a meeting with the President, which eventually occurred. So, yes, it's a wonderful story of the formation of this very powerful group and organization that Diggs really played a big role in forming.
- [52:57]
Dr. Christina Gessler
You tell us in the book, he played a consequential and overlooked role in America's civil rights movement from the 1950s to 1980. He was overshadowed by Powell, but he did far more. You go on to say Diggs story is that of a man who loved his country and who wanted it to live up to its creative equality. He was an imperfect man who nevertheless responded to a higher calling to serve and enable genuine and lasting changes on Americans life. We are at the end of our time together. There's so many more questions I could ask you. Of these 23 chapters, the book comes in at just over 300 pages. It is meticulously researched. It reads like a novel. I hope listeners will have the opportunity to find it at a library near them. My final question is what do you hope listeners will take away?
- [53:48]
Dr. Marion Orr
Well, I really hope that this book will enable us to see and remember Charles Diggs, Jr. In perspective with clarity as the stunningly effective and sadly almost forgotten freedom warrior he was. He really stood up for black Americans. He really stood up. We didn't get the chance to talk about it for blacks in Africa. So he was an amazing and remarkable American. And I really hope this book allowed people to see and understand the full story of this remarkable American leader.
- [54:34]
Dr. Christina Gessler
Thank you so much for being here today, Dr. Orr, and sharing from your book, House of the Rise and Fall of America's Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs, Jr. I'm Christina Gessler. You're listening to the Academic Life. Please join us again.