![]() ![]() His wife became seriously ill, and Diggs withdrew from the university to take care of her. ĭiggs returned to the Indiana University shortly thereafter. Because married women were not allowed to teach in Indiana at that time, their marriage was kept a secret. Smith was a public school teacher in Rising Sun, Indiana. In summer 1912, Diggs married his childhood sweetheart, Clara Bell Smith, in Lexington, Kentucky. Diggs completed the fraternity's constitution and initiation ceremony, and with the help of the others, completed the fraternity's coat of arms. Armstrong's cousin), the current Grand Keeper of Records, continued to develop the various aspects of the fraternity while working as waiters in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In June 1912, after the end of the school year, Diggs, Byron K. Diggs served as the Grand Polemarch, chairman of the entire fraternity, for the first six years of Kappa Alpha Psi. On January 5, 1911, Diggs and the other founders of Kappa Alpha Psi officially formed this new fraternity, with Diggs being made the chairman, a position later termed Polemarch. Unhappy with the plight of African-Americans on Indiana University's campus, Diggs met with eight other men with the purpose of discussing issues of common interest and agreed to pursue the creation of a fraternity. University life was not particularly kind to African-American students, as they were barred from engaging in activities permitted to white students, such as using entertainment and recreational facilities and engaging in contact sports. Diggs was one of 10 African-American students enrolled at the university. While Diggs attended Indiana University, the campus was predominantly populated with white students. In the fall of that year, Diggs and Armstrong left Howard University to attend Indiana University. It was here that, in 1910, he met Byron Kenneth Armstrong. In 1909, he enrolled in Howard University. He attended Indiana State Normal School (now Indiana State University), graduating in spring 1908. Diggs was born on Decemin Christian County, Kentucky (in the city of Hopkinsville), and raised in Madisonville by his mother Cornelia Diggs along with his younger siblings Ellis and Essie, his brother and sister respectively. ![]()
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