James Robert Lincoln Diggs
James Robert Lincoln Diggs (7 November 1866 – April 14, 1923) was an African American civil rights leader, college president, pastor, and an American football coach. Early life and studies. Diggs earned degrees from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. He became the first African American to receive a doctorate in sociology in the United States and the ninth overall to receive any doctorate. Wayland Seminary and Virginia Union. He was a member of the Wayland Seminary faculty when it was merged with Virginia Union University in 1898 . He served as the school's head football coach from 1900 to 1901. College presidencies. He served as the president of several colleges, including Virginia University of Lynchburg (then known as Virginia Seminary) from 1906 to 1908 and Simmons College of Kentucky from 1908 to 1911. He help found the Niagara Movement. Pastorship. He later became a Baptist pastor, leading congregations in Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland.