Elder Watson Diggs was a principal founder of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated.

Displeased with the plight of black students on Indiana University’s campus, Diggs met with eight other men with the purpose of discussing issues of common interest and agreed to pursue the creation of a fraternity.

On January 5, 1911, Diggs and the other founders of Kappa Alpha Psi officially formed this new fraternity, with Diggs being made the chairman, a position later termed Polemarch.

Diggs wrote the lyrics to the Kappa Alpha Psi Hymn and was  Polemarch for the first six years of the fraternity’s existence.

Diggs graduated from the Indiana University School of Education in 1916, becoming the first African-American to do so.