Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 230

tfwBWe mil Ckmk Among Your Treasured Possessions Stiffel LAMP i I it Recognized the world over for outstanding quality, Stiffel. with unqualified artistry, sets and meets impeccable standards in lamp making. That's why Stiffel lamps become tomorrow's heirlooms enduring, endearing family treasures that put a splendor in living. There's a Stiffel lamp just for you and your budget. See them today! After his parole in 1950, he was reelected, but again lost his seat when a majority of the legislators narrowly voted to unseat him.

"That was a very traumatic experience," recalled Diggs, who said the ordeal only made him more determined to enter politics. "He was later vindicated in a retrial, but the people who knew my father never did believe the charges against him." "Although some of his accomplishments have been lost in history now, my father was the author of the Diggs Civil Rights law, which disallowed discrimination in public accommodations in Michigan." "I remember the night before the vote," Diggs said, smiling. "My father organized a big party in Lansing and brought all of Paradise Valley. He got the proprietors together and they sent all their talent dancers and singers up there to entertain the whole legislature. The next day the vote went through." The following year, in 1951, a special election was held in the third district to fill the seat vacated by Diggs Sr.

Diggs then a 29-year-old student at Detroit College of Law, ran and became the youngest member of the state senate. In 1953, while a state senator, Diggs was persuaded to run for a seat on the city council, but was defeated by nearly 5,000 votes. Still, it was the first time a black candidate had finished in the top ten. Noting he received more votes in the 13th district than the congressional representative, George O'Brien, Diggs convinced his father and other black political strategists to back him in the 1954 congressional election. He won the primary easily and defeated Laney Knight, son of Detroit Free Press publisher John S.

Knight, with 64 percent of the vote the smallest margin of victory that Diggs has ever received. In the past five elections, he has received an average of 85 percent of the vote in his district, and in 1974 he spent only $400 on his During his first years in Congress the demands on Diggs, the third black congressman, were often overbearing. One problem was the lack of camaraderie between the other two black members. Unlike William Dawson, the reserved Illinois representative, and far less flamboyant than New York City's Adam Clayton Powell, Diggs found his style acceptable to both and served to bridge the gap between them. With only three black congressman to represent an ethnic constituency that extended far beyond their own districts, Diggs found himself a very busy man.

Times have changed now, said Diggs. "There are more black people in Congress and many more sensitive white people." "I don't get letters now from Illinois about prison conditions, or letters from California about racism in the military. They write to their own folks and I've become more of a specialist," he said. As the organizer and first chairman of the Black Caucus, Diggs led the celebrated black boycott of ex-President Nixon's State of the Union message after the president refused to meet with the caucus to discuss his vetoes of certain legislation and his opposition to the renewal of the voting rights act in 1970. After the boycott, the.

meeting quickly materialized. When Gerald Ford assumed the presidency, he promptly accepted an invitation to meet with the group. "Ford had one advantage that Nixon didn't have," said Diggs, "since he served in the House with most-of the members and we knew him on a first-name basis." "So it was less of a confrontation than with Nixon. But the Ford administration is essentially an extension of the Nixon administration and we haven't really gotten much response there. But they know who we are and that they must deal with us." Diggs remained chairman of the caucus until the following year, when, according to Rep.

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