[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 147 (Thursday, October 15, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2203-E2205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONGRESSMAN CHARLES DIGGS JR.: A LEADER IN THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 15, 1998

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, my family and I were saddened to learn of 
the death of my longtime friend and former colleague, Congressman 
Charles Diggs Jr., the first African American elected to Congress from 
Michigan. Congressman Diggs paved the way for an entire generation of 
African American political leaders, not just in his home state, but 
throughout the nation. When I first arrived in Washington in 1965, 
Congressman Diggs had been there 10 years and had earned a well 
deserved reputation as a fearless fighter for justice for poor and 
oppressed people. In my early days in Congress, he helped me find my 
way through the maze of Washington politics. I knew I could rely on him 
for sound advice.
  Congressman Diggs was not afraid to speak the truth. During his 
tenure in Congress, his was a resounding voice for millions of African 
Americans whose words were muted and whose dreams were bruised by the 
cruel forces of discrimination and intimidation. In matters of 
international affairs, he was the first member of Congress to promote 
Africa as a key part of the U.S. foreign agenda, and he was chair of 
the House Subcommittee on African Affairs. He was also a founding 
member of the Congressional Black Caucus, as was I.
  For Detroiters, the name Diggs has a particular resonance. 
Congressman Diggs' parents were community activists who operated a

[[Page E2204]]

funeral home that gave proper funerals to generations of Detroit 
residents, even when the grieving families were short on funds. On a 
more personal note, the Diggs family and the Conyers family have known 
each other for more than half a century. Charlie Diggs and I learned 
early on that we all have a responsibility to carry the banner for 
justice and equality. He never forgot that lesson, and he remained 
convinced of the limitless potential of Detroit and Detroiters.
  I am proud to have served with him.
  My entire family extends its deepest sympathies to the Diggs family. 
Our city and our country have lost another brave warrior in the 
struggle for freedom.

            [From the Michigan Chronicle, Sept. 2-8, 1998.]

          Life and Times of Congressman Charles C. Diggs, Jr.

       Detroit lost another link to its historic past with the 
     death of Charles C. Diggs, Jr. in West Virginia.
       He was 75.
       Federal Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, the congressman's former 
     wife, said, ``I am much saddened by the news. He was a great 
     man with great strengths and weaknesses as well.''
       ``I hope he will be remembered for his many gifts and for 
     consistently fighting the good fight on behalf of his people 
     through lonely and dangerous times,'' she continued.
       Michigan's first Black congressman and the founder of the 
     Congressional Black Caucus, Diggs was the heir to a family 
     political dynasty in local politics and a leading advocate in 
     Washington, D.C. for civil rights and African affairs during 
     his 25 years in Congress.
       Following in the footsteps of his father, Charles Diggs, 
     Sr., Michigan's first Black Democratic state senator, Diggs, 
     Jr. was the youngest elected member of the Michigan Senate in 
     1950. He made an unsuccessful run for Detroit City Council in 
     1953 before successfully running against 14-year incumbent 
     Congressman George O'Brien in 1954.
       Diggs took office in 1955 as the representative for 
     Detroit's 13th Congressional District. He immediately 
     received national notoriety during the infamous Emmett Till 
     murder trial in Mississippi. After several White defendants 
     were acquitted in the murder of the 14-year-old. Diggs spoke 
     around the country about the case.
       Diggs made his greatest contributions as a member of 
     Congress and later chairman of the House Foreign Affairs 
     Committee. Among his notable crusades were Support of home 
     rule for Washington, D.C. creation of the Congressional Black 
     Caucus in 1969, helping to found TransAfrica, a think-tank on 
     African and Caribbean affairs, founding the National Black 
     Political Convention in Gary, Ind., authoring legislation 
     preserving the Frederick Douglas Home in Anacostia.
       In 1978, Diggs was charged with padding his congressional 
     staff payroll, but was reelected by Detroit voters. In 1980, 
     he resigned from office after being convicted of crimes 
     related to those charges.
       He then donated more than 1,000 boxes of his personal 
     papers to the Moorland-Springarn Collection on the Howard 
     University Campus. In the later years of his life, Diggs 
     practiced mortuary science in Virginia, Michigan and Ohio.
       Following Diggs' departure from Congress, the late Judge 
     George Crockett became the 13th District Representative, 
     followed by Barbara Rose Collins. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick 
     is the current congressperson.
       Charles C. Diggs Jr. was born Dec. 2, 1922 in Detroit, the 
     only child of his late parents, Charles C. Diggs Sr. and 
     Mayne E. Jones. The Diggs seniors were morticians, pioneers 
     in business, public servants and community activists. 
     Diggs Sr. was elected in 1936 as Michigan's first Black 
     Democratic state senator. The first Black state senator 
     had been Republican Atty. Charles Roxborough, elected for 
     a two-year term in 1932, but he did not seek reelection 
     after serving until 1934.
       Sen. Diggs headed the Michigan Federated Democratic League 
     in Detroit which was considered the largest organized force 
     of African Americans in the state. He was acknowledged to be 
     the period's most outstanding politician and was particularly 
     noted for authoring Michigan's reverently innovative law 
     prohibiting racial or related discrimination in public-
     service places; the ``Diggs Law,'' as it was named, was 
     enacted in 1937. His son, Charles C. Diggs Jr. graduated from 
     Miller High School in 1940 as president of his class and 
     third speaker on its champion debating team coached by 
     English professor Alvin Loving. From September 1940 to June 
     1942, he attended the University of Michigan and won the 
     institution's coveted oratorical championship in 1941.
       When World War II started in 1942 he sought admission at 
     Detroit's Navy recruiting office, but was rejected, allegedly 
     for ``poor eyesight.'' Of course, his eyesight was 
     sufficient, but he was denied admission because the Navy was 
     segregated, like the rest of the armed services in those 
     days. Opportunities for Blacks were limited to menial tasks, 
     for which he was obviously over-qualified.
       Moreover, since Diggs, Sr. was a Michigan state senator and 
     a militant activist, the Navy feared public criticism would 
     result. However, Diggs Jr. was drafted in April 1943 after 
     one semester during his third college year which began in 
     September 1942 at historically Black Fisk University, 
     Nashville, Tenn.
       Following his basic training as a private at Kearns Field. 
     Salt Lake City, Utah, he was sent to the Army administration 
     school, Atlanta University in Georgia. After graduating 
     there, where he and his roommate were top of their class, he 
     was promoted to private first class and reassigned to the 
     third EAUTC Headquarters, Tampa, Fla. Shortly after, he was 
     sent to another military administration school in South 
     Dakota State College, Brookings, South Dakota and was 
     promoted to corporal. Upon graduation, he was returned to the 
     third EAUTIC. He was subsequently elevated to buck-sergeant, 
     and three months later he was appointed to the Army Air Force 
     Officer Candidate School, Miami Beach. Upon graduation there 
     as a second lieutenant, he was reassigned to the famed Black 
     Army Air Force Base at Tuskegee, Ala. When World War II 
     ended, Diggs was honorably released from active duty in June 
     1945, and he returned to Detroit.
       He then attended and graduated from Wayne State 
     University's College of Mortuary Science in June 1946 and 
     became general manager of the House of Diggs, Michigan's 
     largest funeral business, founded in 1921. Succeeding his 
     father, Diggs Jr. subsequently became president of the 
     metropolitan Funeral System, Michigan's only burial insurance 
     company. It then became Detroit Metropolitan Mutual Insurance 
     Co., which later combined with Mammoth Life in Louisville, 
     Ky. Mammoth has since merged with Atlanta Life in Georgia and 
     is currently the largest Black-owned insurance company in the 
     United States.
       In September 1950, Diggs, Jr, enrolled at the Detroit 
     College of Law as a night student, but after only one 
     semester he was elected as the youngest member of the 
     Michigan State Senate, and served two terms. He successfully 
     sponsored Michigan's first Fair Employment Practices Law, 
     establishing the Fair Employment Practices Commission to 
     eliminate racial and related discrimination in Michigan 
     public or private. He also sponsored legislation legalizing 
     DNA blood tests to determine a child's rightful paternity/
     maternity link, and Michigan became the pioneer state to 
     enact this statute. He then dropped out of law school as 
     driving 85 miles each way to and from Detroit four days a 
     week became too burdensome for his additional legislative and 
     constituency obligations.
       In 1953, as a second term state senator, he ran for the 
     Detroit City Council, a city-wide, non-partisan election 
     never before won by a Black candidate; he was marginally 
     defeated by a White female. However, his unprecedented 
     showing is widely credited for generating the momentum which 
     four years later contributed substantially to the successful 
     election of Atty. William T. Patrick Jr. as the city's first 
     African American member of the council.
       Nevertheless, because of the strong voter support Diggs 
     received in the 13th Congressional District in his referenced 
     bid in 1953 for the council, he challenged the 14-year 
     incumbent Congressman George O'Brien the next year in 1954. 
     Diggs overwhelmingly defeated O'Brien three-to-one in that 
     Democratic primary becoming Michigan's first Black member of 
     the U.S. House of Representatives where he served with 
     distinction until his retirement in 1980.


                          The Emmett Till case

       In 1955 as a freshman congressman he was propelled across 
     the international scene by his attendance at the infamous 
     Emmett Till kidnap/murder trial in Mississippi, next to 
     Issaqueena County where his father was born and his 
     grandfather, Rev. James J. Diggs, founded the Woodland 
     Baptist Church, in the late 1800s. It still stands, a 
     permanent reminder of his many achievements including service 
     as a Baptist minister missionary to Liberia in Africa.
       The egregious miscarriage of justice which acquitted the 
     White male defendants who committed violent crimes against 
     that 14-year-old teenager who dared not conform with 
     Mississippi's racial standards focused global attention on 
     the worst plight of Black America.
       After Diggs' attendance at the trial, as always replayed in 
     old films on TV, particularly during Black History Month each 
     year, the NAACP got him to speak throughout the U.S. about 
     the victimization of Emmett Till, to inspire support for 
     corrective federal/state/local civil rights laws and customs.


                     He left his mark on Washington

       During his first four years in Washington (1955-59), Diggs 
     was assigned to the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
       In 1959 President Eisenhower sent Diggs on a mission, in 
     the PAC-AF Command from Hawaii to the Philippines plus other 
     Pacific islands and Japan to report on minority conditions in 
     those areas of the U.S. Armed Forces. He was accompanied by 
     Lt. Colonel ``Chappie'' James, with whom he had been 
     stationed at the Black American Army Air Field Headquarters 
     (Tuskegee, Ala.) and who later became our first Black 4-Star 
     General in the Air Force.
       Diggs' comprehensive report, supported by extensive 
     interviews and on-site investigations, caused the creation of 
     an Armed Forces Commission to address segregation and 
     discrimination within the command. This commission was 
     continued in 1961 under the next president, John F. Kennedy, 
     whom Congressman Diggs had strongly supported in the 1960 
     general federal elections.

[[Page E2205]]

       Additionally, during his first four years in the U.S. House 
     of Representatives, Diggs also served on the House Interior 
     and Insular Affairs Committee (now House Resources). His 
     ardent advocacy of statehood legislation was one of the prime 
     subjects under its jurisdiction. Focus was on the Hawaii/
     Alaska proposals, which in 1959 established Democratic Hawaii 
     and Republican Alaska as the 49/50th states in the union.
       As chairman of the D.C. committee, Diggs sponsored 
     legislation authorizing preservation of the Frederick Douglas 
     Home in Anacostia, Southeast D.C., by having it designated a 
     national historical site within the jurisdiction of the U.S. 
     Interior Department. This designation replaced its previous 
     benefactor, Dr. Rosa Cragg of Detroit and the National 
     Association of Colored Women's Clubs, under whose aegis the 
     Douglass Home unfortunately had languished, principally 
     because of the latter's limited resources and those of the 
     Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association Inc.
       In 1959 Diggs also became the first Black member of 
     Congress appointed to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He 
     had sought this assignment after his selection in 1957 by 
     President Eisenhower, to be part of the U.S. Delegation to 
     the Independence of Ghana in West Africa. The delegation, 
     headed by vice president Richard Nixon, had been flown there 
     on a ``prop-ship'' through a midway island refuel stop, since 
     this was before the ``jet-propulsion'' age.
       The prime Foreign Affairs Committee consideration during 
     his first two years was to authorize establishment of the 
     Peace Corps. Given Diggs' enhanced African interest following 
     referenced mission to Ghana, he knew how important the Peace 
     Corps would be in furthering numerous developments on that 
     ancient colonized continent. This prompted him to be one of 
     the committee's strongest and most respected advocates of the 
     Corps. Subsequent positive activities of Peace Corps 
     Volunteers (PCVs) fully justified his continued, invaluable 
     support.
       Upon his request he was also appointed, in 1959, to the 
     insignificant subcommittee on Africa, which he immediately 
     stimulated. In 1969, a decade thereafter, he rose to its 
     chairmanship and maintained historic levels of the 
     committee's activation until his retirement in 1980. Based on 
     his extensive travels abroad plus meetings with African 
     leaders and elsewhere regarding African policies, plus his 
     unmatched official hearings, Diggs became one of our nation's 
     leading spokespersons on this subject.
       TRANSAFRICA, America's premier think-tank on African and 
     Caribbean issues, was founded in Diggs' office where its 
     current executive director, Randall Robinson, was Diggs' 
     administrative assistant.
       In 1969-70 Diggs founded and became the first chairman of 
     the Congressional Black Caucus. William L. Clay, one of the 
     important players in Congress and author of the book, ``Just 
     Permanent Interests,'' is the senior member of the Missouri 
     Congressional Delegation and a founding member of the 
     Congressional Black Caucus. Inside the book, he states, 
     ``Charlie: We would not have made so much progress in the 
     caucus had it not been for your leadership, signed Bill, 9/
     24/92.'' In 1971 Diggs served as a full delegate to the 
     United Nation's general assembly while George Bush, with whom 
     he had served in the House, was the Delegation's ambassador 
     before he became president of the United States. Congressman 
     Ed Derwinski (R-Ill) was another appointed full delegate and 
     he later became the first secretary of the Veterans 
     Administration.
       In addition to his one semester at Fisk University, 
     Nashville (1942-43) then being drafted into the U.S. Armed 
     Services, there have been only two other Congressmen, Bill 
     Dawson (D-Ill.) and John Lewis (D-Ga.) who have been to that 
     college. Diggs also has a mortuary science degree from Wayne 
     State University, was the sole principal proprietor mortician 
     in the Metropolitan Tri-State area of Maryland, Washington, 
     D.C. and Virginia, and was a Howard University graduate. He 
     also holds honorary doctor of law degrees from Ohio's 
     Wilberforce University and Central State College, North 
     Carolina's Agricultural and Technical State University and 
     the University of the District of Columbia.
       He is survived by his wife, Darlene Diggs of Mississippi; 
     six children, Charles C. Diggs III, Denise Taylor Diggs, 
     Alexis Robinson Diggs, Douglass Diggs, Carla Mathis Diggs, 
     Cindy Carter Diggs, and 12 granchildren.

     

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