Norwood Oasis in Tension Era-June 8, 1968

Henry and Irma Diggs Win Total Admiration and Respect of Town

In Norwood, Henry and Irma Diggs are members of a minority whose work has won them the admiration and respect of the majority. Diggs, a 60-year-old printer, has been a member of the town’s School Committee for the past ten years. Though he has no sons, he is active in the work of the Boy Scouts. His wife, a teacher in a nearby town, has for years been so involved in helping the young that she is a member of the Girl Scout Council and is known in Norwood as “Mrs. Girl Scout”. Both are Negroes, two of but 26 in a town of 29,000 residents. Diggs, a lifelong resident of Norwood, has never felt the fact that his color placed him at a disadvantage in the eyes of his neighbors. “It’s a nice town,” he said. “I don’t know of another one where I’d want to live. And, no, I don’t feel left out as far as civil rights is concerned. Not with the means of communication in the world today.”

Diggs got into town politics 16 years ago, when Norwood switched to the open meeting type of government. He ran for district representative and won. A few years later, he ran for the School Committee and was beaten – “but not badly”. But then, in 1958, a year later, he tried again and won – and he’s been winning ever since. “I don’t run my campaign in any particular way, as far as civil rights is concerned,” he said. “I just want a better school system and the people know this.”

There will be an open meeting in Norwood Junior High School June 12 to discuss Metco. It is favored by the Norwood Ministerial Ass., and representatives from Metco, as well as from towns that have adapted it, will be on hand to explain how it works. And townspeople, too, will have their say on it. As for Diggs, he is unable to agree with those who feel that a change from the slum to the suburbs might be too much for children to handle. “I think it’s better to get some sunlight than none at all,” he said. “I’d like to give these children an insight into how other people live. I think you should do what is right for the children, and I think that associating with other races would be a good thing for the Norwood children and schools.”

Henry and Irma Diggs come naturally by their interest in schools. Not only is she a teacher and he a member of the school board, but their married daughters are involved, too. Jacqueline, a graduate of Springfield College, is a physical education teacher in Framingham, and Judith, an alumna of Lesley College, divides her time between her work as a homemaker and her other career as a substitute teacher.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Boston Herald American.