Charles Diggs Quotes

United States, Politician
December 2, 1922 – August, 24, 1998.

Charles Coles Diggs Jr. was an African-American politician from the U.S. state of Michigan who served in the state senate and U.S. House of Representatives. Diggs was an early member of the civil rights movement. He attended the trial of Emmett Till's murderers, and was elected the first chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He was a staunch critic of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

In talking about the Emmett Till murder trial, you have to repeat the atmosphere. This is Mississippi in 1955, with a long history of intimidation of witnesses and fear on the part of blacks to testify, in racial situations in particular. For someone like Mose Wright and others to testify against white defendants in a situation like this was historic.

Charles Diggs
- Atmosphere
- Murder
- Repeat
I think the picture in Jet magazine showing Emmett Till's mutilation was probably the greatest media product in the last forty or fifty years because that picture stimulated a lot of interest and anger on the part of blacks all over the country.

Charles Diggs