This conversation explores the life and legacy of Charles C. Diggs Jr., a significant yet often overlooked figure in the civil rights movement and American politics. Brown University Professor, Marion Orr, discusses his new biography of Diggs, detailing his contributions to the Congressional Black Caucus, his legislative achievements, and the circumstances surrounding his fall from grace. The discussion also touches on Diggs' personal life, his family's involvement, and the broader implications of his work for African American history and political science. Marion Orr is the inaugural Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science and Urban Studies at Brown University. He previously was a member of the political science faculty at Duke University. Professor Orr earned his B.A. degree in political science from Savannah State College, M.A. in political science from Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University), and a Ph.D. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park. From 2008-2014, Professor Orr served as Director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions at Brown University. He is a former chair of Brown’s Department of Political Science and a former director of Brown’s Urban Studies Program. Professor Orr’s expertise is in the area of American politics. He specializes in urban politics, race and ethnic politics, and African-American politics. He is the author and editor of eight books. His book, House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs, Jr. (University of North Carolina Press, 2025), is the first biography of Michigan’s first Black member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Among Professor Orr’s other books, Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore (University Press of Kansas), won the Policy Studies Organization’s Aaron Wildavsky Award and his co-authored, The Color of School Reform: Race, Politics and the Challenge of Urban Education (Princeton University Press), was named the best book by the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Urban Politics Section. He is the co-editor (with Domingo Morel) of Latino Mayors: Political Change in the Postindustrial City. He is also the author of numerous scholarly articles, essays, and reviews. Professor Orr is the recipient of the Biographers International Organization Francis “Frank” Rollin Fellowship. He has also held a research fellowship at the Brookings Institution, a Presidential Fellowship from the University of California, Berkeley, and a fellowship from the Ford Foundation. In 2019, Orr was awarded APSA’s Hanes Walton, Jr. Career Award, awarded to “a political scientist whose lifetime of distinguished scholarship has made significant contributions to our understanding of racial and ethnic politics and illuminates the conditions under which diversity and intergroup tolerance thrive in democratic societies.” Professor Orr served as President of the APSA’s Organized Section on Urban Politics and an elected member and chair of the Governing Board of the Urban Affairs Association, an international organization devoted to the study of urban issues. Dr. Orr has also served as a member of the executive councils of the American Political Science Association and the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. He has served, or is currently serving, on the editorial boards of the National Political Science Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City, and Urban Affairs Review.
