Diggs was instrumental in having the Indiana Constitution amended to permit Negro enlistment in the Indiana National Guard.īorn in Greencastle, Indiana, he attended grade school and high school in Greencastle, Indiana. After European service with the 368th Infantry, he became a captain in the Reserve Officers Training Corps. Upon America's entrance into World War I, Diggs resigned his principalship to enter the Nation's first Officer's Training Camp at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and was commissioned a lieutenant. After his death on November 8, 1947, the name of the school where he taught was changed to the Elder Diggs School in his memory. For this and other outstanding contributions to the Fraternity, he was awarded the Fraternity's first Laurel Wreath in December 1924.Īn educator by profession, he taught in the public schools of Indianapolis, Indiana, where he was elevated to a principalship. He served as Grand Polemarch for the first six consecutive years of the Fraternity's existence. Born in Christian County, Kentucky, was a graduate of Indiana State Normal (now Indiana State Teachers College) and Indiana University, the birthplace of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

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