Founder Elder Watson Diggs was born on December 23, 1883, in Christian County, Kentucky, and was raised in Louisville, where he attended and later taught in a one-room schoolhouse. He graduated from Indiana State Normal School in 1908 and enrolled at Howard University in 1909, where he met Byron Kenneth Armstrong. In 1910, Diggs transferred to Indiana University, where racial isolation of Black students inspired his vision for a fraternity grounded in achievement and unity. He was the principal founder of Kappa Alpha Psi and served as its first Grand Polemarch. Diggs spent his career in education and public service and remained committed to the fraternity until his death in 1947.