Charles C. Diggs Sr.’s Grave

The man who built this place is buried in it. Charles C. Diggs Sr. was a Detroit mortician who grew tired of watching his community denied dignity in death — so in 1925 he led the founding of Detroit Memorial Park. He was also a political pioneer, becoming the first Black Democrat elected to the Michigan state senate, and he founded a dynasty: his son, Charles Diggs Jr., would become the first Black congressman from Michigan.

He rests among the community he served, at the cemetery he willed into being. On our list — there’s something fitting about a founder who never left.