{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Episode 7.17: The Forgotten Civil Rights Legacy of Congressman Charles C. Diggs, Jr.","description":"Interviewer: MATTHEW ROTH. The ways in which the Civil Rights Movement translated passion and protest into durable political change were complex, involving a wide range of actors beyond those most prominently enshrined in the popular imagination. In his new book, political scientist MARION ORR argues for the critical importance of a figure now widely forgotten: Michigan Congressman Charles C. Diggs, Jr., who during his tenure from 1955-1980 was a persistent and effective voice for desegregation and Black self-determination. In his discussion with historian Matthew Roth, Orr describes Diggs\u2019 roots in his Detroit family\u2019s funeral home, the House of Diggs; his political career as a pathbreaking Black Michigan Senator and then U.S. Congressman; his accomplishments, ranging from the desegregation of airline travel and Washington D.C. home rule to the founding of both the Congressional Black Caucus and institutions critical to the anti-Apartheid movement; and finally, to his downfall with a criminal conviction for the financial mismanagement of his congressional office. Orr\u2019s book is House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr. ","author_name":"The Andrea Mitchell Center Podcast","author_url":"https:\/\/www.sas.upenn.edu\/andrea-mitchell-center\/","html":"