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Lester B. Diggs

Lester Bernard Diggs

Lester Bernard Diggs


Lester Diggs with his uncle, Johhny James Young, with whom he was interviewed, 1996

Johnny James Young and Lester Bernard Diggs, 1996


Lester Diggs in his garden

Lester Diggs in his garden

Lester B. Diggs, who has lived in Courtland his whole life, attended Alabama State University and worked for Reynolds Metals Company. Through his mother, Minnie Lee Young Diggs, he is descended from Reuben and Susan Scott, enslaved foreman and domestic servant, brought to northern Alabama by Jefferson's great-grandson William Stuart Bankhead in 1846.
Diggs grew up on a farm owned by the Hotchkiss family, who are Bankhead descendants, and he describes cotton cultivation in his interview. He also recalls meeting Martin Luther King in 1956 in Montgomery, shortly after King’s house was fire-bombed.
1996 Nov. 11, Courtland, AL
Interviewees: Lester B. Diggs, Johnny James Young

- Jupiter 1743–1800 Suck 1758–post 1796
- Susan Scott
- Mildred Scott Young 1848–post 1930
- Lester B. Diggs 1939–
- Lessie Young Clay aunt
- Johnny James Young uncle
- Eliga Diggs brother
- Cary Hotchkiss II Bankhead descendant
- Roger McWhorter Bankhead descendant