Louis S. Diggs

Louis S. Diggs was born in Baltimore in 1932 on Dewey Avenue in Hoes Heights. He spent most of his young life on Stricker Street in the Sandtown area. Mr. Diggs attended Douglass High School, quitting school in 1950 to join the all-Black Maryland National Guard (726th Transportation Truck Company of the 231st Transportation Truck Battalion) when they were federalized to support the Korean War. He saw action in the Korean War from 1950 until 1952. Mr. Diggs retired from the military in 1970 with more than twenty years of service. He is author of thirteen books including Blacks in Baltimore, The Buffalo Soldiers, Surviving in America, Our

Struggles, and African Americans from Baltimore County who Served in the Civil War among others. Mr. Diggs is an Honorary Board Member of the Historical Society of Baltimore County.

Visit the Diggs-Johnson Museum, click here.

Quotes: “You know, what really stands out for me that what we saw in 2015 could’ve happened in the 1930s for something blacks were  to subdue them, but I’m sure there were cases where they did rise up against what they feel injustice. But see, but when kids do that, you know, I want to bet you any amount of money that they don’t know the contributions that men that from their own race through generations that lived in Baltimore City what they did to build that city up, hoping that their children would get better opportunities than they did. They don’t realize that’s a tremendous setback for them.”