Elder Watson Diggs portrait unveiled

From left, Provost Rahul Shrivastav and Kappa Alpha Psi Grand Polemarch Jimmy McMikle unveil a portrait of Elder Watson Diggs, IU School of Education's first Black alumnus.
From left, Provost Rahul Shrivastav and Kappa Alpha Psi Grand Polemarch Jimmy McMikle unveil a portrait of Elder Watson Diggs, IU School of Education's first Black alumnus. Photo by Alex Kumar, Indiana University

Kevin Scott suggested the creation of a portrait of Elder Watson Diggs in 2016 — 100 years after the trailblazing Indiana University alumnus graduated.

Diggs was the first Black graduate of the IU School of Education and a co-founder of Kappa Alpha Psi, the first Black fraternity at IU Bloomington and the only fraternity in the Divine Nine to have been started at a predominantly white institution.

Scott, grand historian of Kappa Alpha Psi, saw his idea realized Sept. 30 in the atrium of the W.W. Wright Education Building. There, a portrait of Diggs painted by artist Shawn Michael Warren was formally unveiled.

Read more about the portrait and Diggs’s legacy at IU Bloomington Today.