Elder Watson Diggs - Biography - Founding of Kappa Alpha Psi

Founding of Kappa Alpha Psi

While Diggs attended Indiana University, the campus was predominantly populated with white students. Diggs was one of 10 African-American students enrolled at the university. 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.

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. 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. Diggs served as the Grand Polemarch, chairman of the entire fraternity, for the first six years of Kappa Alpha Psi.

In June 1912, after the end of the school year, Diggs, Byron K. Armstrong, and Irven Armstrong (Byron K. Armstrong's cousin), the current Grand Keeper of Records, continued to develop the various aspects of the fraternity while working as waiters in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Diggs completed the fraternity's constitution and initiation ceremony, and with the help of the others, completed the fraternity's coat of arms.