EPISODE 2: ELLEN IRENE DIGGS

Ellen Irene Diggs (1906–1998) was an African American anthropologist and sociologist who collaborated closely with W.E.B. Du Bois and Fernando Ortiz before obtaining a professorship at Morgan State College in Baltimore, USA in 1947. With her work on the culture and history of African societies and the African diaspora she helped lay the groundwork for the academic field that came to be known as African American or Black Studies. This episode looks at her formative experience as a PhD student and a Black woman in Havana in the 1940s.

1. scene:

[Cuban music, splash from the pool, ice cubes clinking]

Narrator: In the sweltering afternoon heat,  a cool cocktail by the pool is all one could wish for. Havana in the 1940s is a paradise for tourists.

But for Ellen Irene Diggs, this was a forbidden fantasy. For her, a Black woman, most of Havana‘s hotels would not open their doors. Cuba had just passed a progressive constitution abolishing all forms of discrimination, but the laws were not implemented and racial equality was not a reality in many of Cuba's public spaces. How did this affect Ellen Irene Diggs' experience in Havana? And what brought her there in the first place? First, let us introduce you to this extraordinary woman.

2. scene:

Narrator: Ellen Irene Diggs lived through most of the 20th century. Born in 1906, she was 92 years old when she passed away in 1998. Dr. Diggs, who went by the name of "Irene", was a pioneering anthropologist, sociologist and historian of the African diaspora in the Americas, and the first Black woman to write about race relations in Latin America. During her long life, she traveled to over 80 countries around the globe, visiting all five continents: Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania. She dedicated herself to fighting racism and celebrating the achievements of African-descended people. Her long career began as an assistant to the renowned scholar of Black culture in Atlanta, in the Southern State of Giorgia in the USA, W.E.B. Du Bois in the 1930s. Havana is where she would move away from under his shadow and come into her own.

3. scene:

[People chatting at a reception]

Narrator: When Ellen Irene Diggs first visited Havana in 1941, her attention was fixed on her travel companion, the well-known sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, whom she joined on his trip to Cuba. Together, they experienced a warm welcome by a group of eminent members of Havana's Club Atenas, the association for Cuba's Black professional middle and upper classes. The occasion was an event in honor of Du Bois, and in attendance were a number of prominent figures of the Cuban political scene. The president of Club Atenas, Miguel Céspedes, writes a letter to Du Bois:

Miguel Angel Céspedes: "It is an honor for me to send you an issue of the inviting program for the Concert that [... is] offered [...] in the [...] Club [Atenas...] as a[n] homage to your illustrious personality, on account of your visit to Cuba." (Letter from Miguel Angel Céspedes to Du Bois, 10.06.1941)

4. scene:

[People chatting at a reception, then a camera flash]

Narrator: A phototographer takes a picture of this dinstinguished crowd. Diggs and Du Bois occupy centre stage, surrounded by the celebrated anthropologist Fernando Ortiz and the distinguished guests.

The moment was captured. However, Diggs would disappear from this photograph. Betraying her loyalty, Du Bois would cut his trusted companion out of the picture.

What remains is an image of illustrious men, with the checkered pattern of Diggs' dress – highly fashionable at the time – blending in nicely, almost invisibly, with the patterned ties of the men surrounding her.

Jorge Daniel Vásquez, historian of sociology, tells the story of this erasure:

Jorge Daniel Vásquez: "The vertical line that marks the center of the photo in “Reception in Cuba ” and artificially places Du Bois and Ortiz next to each other reveals the outline of a plaid dress that is different from the white and cream suits of Ortiz, Du Bois, and García Agüero. Both Ortiz and Du Bois keep in their pockets the hand with which they are not holding their hats. Only the profile of Diggs’s arm holding a black purse remains. ... W.E.B Du Bois, the great archivist of his own life, eliminated Irene Diggs from this visual record of his trip to Cuba." (Vásquez 2024, p. 325)

5. scene:

Narrator: Back home in Atlanta, processing her experiences in Cuba, Irene had a choice to make. Would she follow the temptation of the new and go back to Havana, or would she make the more sober, rational choice, taking the safe road towards a career as an anthropologist, by doing a PhD in the United States with the well-known professor of anthropology, Melville Herskovits. She writes a letter to Ortiz:

Ellen Irene Diggs: "Pleasant memories compel me to write a personal letter to express my sincere thanks for the most delightful sojourn I had in Cuba and which in no small measure you made possible. [...] Is it possible to get a doctorate in Anthropology at the University of Havana? [...] I have a bachelor of arts degree in sociology [...] from the University of Minnesota and a master of arts degree in sociology from Atlanta University. In addition to this through my work with Dr. Du Bois, I have become familiar with a considerable part of the literature on Negro and African history and culture as well as the race problems of the world." (Letter from Diggs to Ortiz, 07.07.1941)

Narrator: Fernando Ortiz replies:

Fernando Ortiz: "Respeto a las preguntas que Ud. me hace sobre varias posibilidades en relación con la Universidad de La Habana, puedo contestarle la siguiente: la Universidad La Habana no da títulos de Antropología. [...] Hace unos días comenzamos en la Universidad el curso de verano y yo empecé un breve curso sobre los Factores Etnológicos de Cuba y la mayoría de los estudiantes son norteamericanos." (Regarding the questions that you ask me about various possibilities in relation to the University of Havana, I can answer the following: the University of Havana does not give degrees in Anthropology. [... However, a] few days ago we started the summer course at the University and I began [teaching] a short course on the Ethnological Factors of Cuba[; and] the majority of the students are North Americans.) (Letter from Ortiz to Diggs, 25.07.1941)

Narrator: Irene decides to attend the summer school in Havana, even though she doesn't speak Spanish. She attends classes to learn the language so as to study with Fernando Ortiz.

6. scene:

[Cuban music]

Narrator: The summer school of the University of Havana was a new institution, organized with funding from the US American Institute of International Education and the State Department in Washington, D.C.. As Ortiz had said, most of the students were North Americans. What he did not say, was that the students were white. They were treated royally by the school's administration, offered a rich cultural programme including visits to touristic attractions.

7. scene:

[Beach sounds, seagulls]

Narrator: Students of the summer school received memberships to the exclusive social clubs of Havana such as the Country Club and the Yacht Club. However, as the secretary of the summer school Abelardo Moreno said:

Abelardo Moreno: "Queda entendido que esas cortesías solamente serán extendidas a los alumnos que se trasladen del extranjero con el exclusivo objeto de matricularse en nuestra Escuela […] y nunca a los alumnos residentes". (“It is understood that these courtesies will only be extended to students who come from abroad with the sole purpose of enrolling in our school . . . and not to resident students”.) (Letter from Moreno to the presidents of selected clubs, here the Havana Biltmore and the Country Club of Havana, 15.06.1943)

Narrator: Though he doesn't mention race, the comment reflects the racialized and class-based nature of Cuban social life at the time. Social clubs such as the Country Club were not open to Black visitors and when Moreno mentions the non-resident students to whom he wishes to extend the courtesy of an invitation to the Country Club, he assumes them to be white and upper-class.

8. scene:

Narrator: Irene was not invited to these clubs. As Jorge Daniel Vásquez explains, US-American interventions in Cuba had had an impact not just economically and politically, but socially. Quoting the Black journalist Gustavo Urrutia from an article of 1934, he says:

Jorge Daniel Vásquez: "Despite the essential difference between the anti-[Black] tradition of the United States and that of Cuba, we feel more and more every day the influence of the prejudice à la américa[i]ne." (Urrutia 1934, p. 478, cited in Vásquez 2003, p. 134).

Narrator: Ellen Irene Diggs, the African American student, was not permitted to stay at the hotels offered by the University of Havana to its students, and had to find her own accomodation. She writes to the assistant of Fernando Ortiz:

Ellen Irene Diggs: “My dear Conchita Pinochet: May I trouble you a bit? I am planning to attend the University of Havana summer school beginning July thirteenth and should like your help in finding a good but reasonable place for boarding and lodging. I enclose a list sent me by the University. Would you be so kind as to look it over and suggest a place either from the list or that you know about that is not more than three blocks from the University; at a cost of not more than sixty or seventy dollars [...]; and where I should probably be free from difficulty because of my color.

You may be interested to know that I have been studying Spanish all year. I plan to take a course in Spanish in the University in addition to the course, Ethnographic Factors of Cuba, by Dr. Ortiz.” (Letter from Diggs to Pinochet, 24.06.1942)

Narrator: Upon a recommendation by Ortiz' assistant Conchita Pinochet, she replies:

Ellen Irene Diggs: "I shall be happy to [stay ...] at Jesus Peregrino #362." (Letter from Diggs to Pinochet, 04.07.1942)

9. scene:

[Cars and people on a noisy street]

Narrator: The street Jesus Peregrino was indeed not far from the university. It was a noisy street. Located in the "Barrio de puebla nuevo" it was not the poorest part of town, populated by workers from various industries, for example the tobacco industry.

The factories of the famous tobacco companies Partagás and Julio y Julieta were nearby, as well as the big workers union Central de Trabajadores.

Also nearby was the prestigious Sociedad de los amigos economicos de país of the Spanish-descended elite which had been under the directorship of Fernando Ortiz and where Diggs attended many cultural events.

10. scene:

[Afro-Cuban drums]

Narrator: This cultural institution was much more interesting for Diggs than the Country Club. She had come to Cuba to study Afro-Cuban culture, or what academics at the time called "African survivals". This notion was central to the work of anthropologists at the time, such as Melville Herskovits, the first chair of African Studies in the US.

Diggs embraced Herskovits’ concept of “African survivals”. Both for her and  Fernando Ortiz, the integration of African elements into Cuban culture was an indispensable process which would reduce anti-black racism, or what at the time was called "racial prejudice". Ortiz' aim was to study elements of African culture in Cuban society because he saw them as an essential part of Cuban identity that needed to be better understood and celebrated. According to him, an appreciation of the dance and musical traditions of African-descended Cubans would help create interracial understanding and bring the African-descended population into the fold of Cuban society. As he said:

Fernando Ortiz: "la única vía de liberación contra todos los prejuicios está en el conocimiento de las realidades, sin pasiones ni recelos; basado en la investigación científica y en la apreciación positiva de los hechos y las circunstancias." ("the only way to liberate [oneself] from all prejudices is in the knowledge of the realities, without passions or suspicions; based on scientific research and a positive appreciation of the facts [...]".) (Ortiz 1942, in Diggs 1944, p. 37).

Narrator: Fernando Ortiz clearly appreciated Diggs interest in his work and frequently invited her to his house which was located across the street from the university.

Ellen Irene Diggs: "I was a guest in the palatial home of Ortiz at least once a week, and he saw to it that I witnessed many of the African survivals in Cuba.” (Bolles 1999, p. 160)

Narrator: Ortiz also introduced Diggs to Havana's high society and she was regularly invited to formal events of various associations. She attended lectures at the Sociedad de los amigos economicos de país – which was mostly frequented by upper class Spanish-descended Cubans – and at the Club Atenas of the African-descended political elite. She was also invited to high-level events such as an award-ceremony for Cuba's president Fulgencio Batista. There was no lack of opportunities for Diggs to meet new people. While other summer school students were attending the Country Club, she had an enriching, active social life in the city.

11. scene

Narrator: Diggs also had plenty of opportunities to enjoy the lush Cuban scenery.

Ellen Irene Diggs: "Again and again ... I am impressed with the sheer beauty of the world. High above the noises of the street in downtown Havana I sit facing the sea, the Gulf of Mexico. Morro Castle is to my right. In front of me lay the sea, blue and shimmering, beneath two little sailboats [...], and above, sea gulls.“ (Diggs, newspaper unknown, nd.)

Narrator: But Diggs' report is ambivalent: She sees beauty, but also terrible poverty:

Ellen Irene Diggs: "Over and over I say to myself it's beautiful. ... Looking back ... is the rainbow and below a luxuriant garden [...]; palm trees tall, tufted, waving with exalted dignity and majestic grandeur. In the tropics numerous plants are always in bloom.. ... In the midst of all this and at times more impressive is the utterly shocking, dire, frightful poverty of the masses of people." (Diggs, newspaper unknown, nd.)

12. scene

[Cuban music]

Narrator: In 1945, Diggs obtained her PhD. As a newspaper article from her home town of Monmouth, Illinois declared: "Miss Ellen Irene Diggs ... has just had the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Letters ... bestowed upon her by the University of Havana [...]. She is the first American colored woman to achieve this distinction and very few American whites have obtained it." (Anonymous, newspaper unknown, nd.)

Celebrating her achievements in a letter to Du Bois, she exclaims:

Ellen Irene Diggs: “As a matter of fact, I am a doctora. Isn’t it wonderful – in Spanish one does not lose her femininity!” (Letter of Diggs to Du Bois, 17.09.1945)

Narrator: Shortly thereafter, she was granted another prestigious award from the Roosevelt Foundation to travel through South America as one of the first Black women to write about the African Diaspora on the continent.

Jorge Daniel Vasquéz writes:

Jorge Daniel Vásquez: "in the mid-1940s, Diggs was the African-American intellectual most knowledgeable about race in Latin America." (Vásquez 2024, p. 24) "[Her] most significant contribution in this period was her development of a sociology of the Latin American color line." (Vásquez 2024, p. 21) "Going beyond Du Bois, Diggs devoted particular emphasis to understanding the different articulations, hierarchies, and policies that account for the complexity of the color line in Latin America, incorporating the analysis of violence against women." (Vásquez 2024, p. 22)

After returning from her Latin American trip where she had studied colonial history and current race relations for six months, she worked again for a short while with W.E.B. Du Bois.

But during her studies and travels she had developed her own unique expertise on issues of race in Latin America and the Caribbean which allowed her to come into her own.

She was soon offered a professorship at Morgan State College in Baltimore, in 1947.

There, she taught generations of students in Black history, sociology and anthropology for 29 years.

13. Scene/Conclusion:

Narrator: As historian Constance Holden says:

Constance Holden: "Dr. Diggs was all about trying to figure out what the diaspora looked like in action—what values mattered, how African-descended communities formed, and what pieces of Africa remained as African-diasporic peoples got in formation across the Americas and the world." (Holden 2022, p. 4)

Narrator: Ellen Irene Diggs's courage and curiosity brought her to Cuba, and later to many other parts of the world. Her experiences in Havana shaped her understanding of race which she would develop throughout her life as a pioneering scholar of the African diaspora.

The full story of how Ellen Irene Diggs became who she was remains to be told. This episode focused on her formative years in Havana. The biography I am writing about the life and work of Ellen Irene Diggs will tell the rest. Stay posted!

[Cuban music]

Literature:

• Baker, Lee D. From Savage to Negro: Anthropology and the Construction of Race; 1896 - 1954. University of California Press, 1998.
• Bolles, A. Lynn. “Ellen Irene Diggs: Coming of Age in Atlanta, Havana, and Baltimore.” African-American Pioneers in Anthropology, edited by Ira E. Harrison and Faye V. Harrison, University of Illinois Press, 1999, pp. 154–67.
• Cole, Johnnetta B. “Africanisms in the Americas: A Brief History of the Concept.” Anthropology & Humanism, vol. 10, no. 4, 1985, pp. 120–26.
• Guridy, Frank Andre. Forging Diaspora: Afro-Cubans and African Americans in a World of Empire and Jim Crow. University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
• Kutzinski, Vera M. Sugar's Secrets: Race and the Erotics of Cuban Nationalism. University of Virginia Press, 1993.
• Herskovits, Melville J. The Myth of the Negro Past. 2. Beacon paperback ed., 1. digital print ed. Beacon Press, [1941] 2005.
• Holden, Constance. ““What Do You Suggest That I Do Next?”: The Rival Geographies of Ellen Irene Diggs.” Journal of Black Educology, vol. 1, Article 3 (Fall), 2022, pp. 33–51. repository.usfca.edu/be/vol1/iss1/3
• La Fuente, Alejandro de. A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba. The University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
• Ohlraun, Vanessa. “A School of One’s Own: Ellen Irene Diggs and the Cuban Politics of Race.” Gender and Intersectionality in the History and Culture of Central America and the Caribbean (19th and 20th Centuries), edited by Christine Hatzky et al., Center for Historical Research of Central America, 2024, pp. 265–306. See here for the PDF.
• Palmié, Stephan, ed. Africas of the Americas: Beyond the Search for Origins in the Study of Afro-Atlantic Religions. Brill, 2008.
• Pappademos, Melina. Black Political Activism and the Cuban Republic. University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
• Schwartz, Rosalie. Pleasure Island: Tourism and Temptation in Cuba. University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
• Urrutia, Gustavo. “Race Prejudice in Cuba”. Nancy Cunard (Ed.), Negro Anthology, pp. 473–478. London, 1934.
• Vásquez, Jorge Daniel. “W.E.B. Du Bois and Irene Diggs: Gender, Erasures, and Knowledge Production in the Sociology of the Global Color Line.” Gender & Society, vol. 38, 3 (June), 2024, pp. 317–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432241252609
• Vásquez, Jorge Daniel. “W. E. B. Du Bois’s Global Sociology and the Anti-Racist Struggle for Democracy in Cuba (1931–1941).” Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, vol. 21, 1 (Spring), 2023, pp. 116–42. doi.org/10.1017/s1742058x23000103

Sources:

• Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí, Fondo Fernando Ortiz, file 303, letter from Diggs to Ortiz, 07.07.1941.
• Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí, Fondo Fernando Ortiz, file 303, letter from Diggs to Pinochet, 24.06.1942
• Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí, Fondo Fernando Ortiz, file 303, letter from Diggs to Pinochet, 04.07.1942.
• Club Atenas (Havana, Cuba). Club Atenas concert program, June 9, 1941. W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b096-i107
• Diggs, Ellen Irene. Fernando Ortiz y Fernández. La Vida y La Obra. Ph.D. dissertation, Universidad de la Habana, 1944.
• Ellen Irene Diggs papers, Series E, Box 14-4, Beulah M. Davis Special Collections, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, letter from Diggs to Du Bois, 17.09.1945.
• Diggs, Ellen Irene. “Coffee Penny a Cup and Maids $6 a Month in Cuba”, ANP, newspaper unknown, nd, Ellen Irene Diggs papers, Series A, Box 14-2, Beulah M. Davis Special Collections, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD.
• Universidad de la Havana, Archivo Central, file Escuela de Verano, letter from Moreno to the presidents of selected clubs, here the Havana Biltmore and the Country Club of Havana, 15.06.1943

Sounds:

• Cuban mambo by oymaldonado -- freesound.org/s/544019/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
• Splash, Jumping, B.wav by InspectorJ -- freesound.org/s/352100/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
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• Interior Bar 4.wav by emilijoan -- freesound.org/s/508486/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
• Vintage camera flash bulb pops sound design.wav by adilbek_sounds -- freesound.org/s/595044/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
• Beach Birds Ambience.wav by Romeo_Kaleikau -- freesound.org/s/588369/ -- License: Attribution 3.0
• Cuba, Vinales - Street Ambience, Cars and Trucks Passing By, Horses, Walla by MaximeBedot -- freesound.org/s/672433/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
• Cuban Santeria Drumming 110611-009_cuban_santeria_drumming.wav by reinsamba -- freesound.org/s/123588/ -- License: Attribution 4.0