Passing for White: Race, Religion, and the Healy Family, 1820-1920

James O'Toole, Assoc. Professor of History, Boston College

Bishop James Augustine Healy, HC '1849

Tuesday, October 22, 2002, 4:00PM, Rehm Library

Sponsored by The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture
in cooperation with Africana Studies, the Bishop Healy Multicultural Society
and the Black Student Union.

Born on a Georgia cotton plantation to a mixed-race domestic slave mother and an Irish father, three Healy Brothers went on to become important leaders of the American Catholic Church in the 19th century. James Augustine Healy, Holy Cross class of 1849, was the first African American to become a Roman Catholic bishop. (At Holy Cross, Healy Hall and the Bishop Healy Society are named after him). Patrick Healy, HC '1850, served as Georgetown University's president from 1873 to 1881, and is often referred to as the "second founder" of Georgetown University. The first African American to serve as president of a predominantly white university (Georgetown was in fact officially segregated under his presidency), he never acknowledged his African ancestry. Georgetown's main building is named after him. Alexander Sherwood Healy earned a doctorate in Rome and became a distinguished priest and canon lawyer. Many other family members went on to distinguish themselves in the church and in other occupations.

O'Toole's new book on the Healy family recounts in fascinating ways how family members dealt with their status as mixed race persons in Georgia's slave society and in their adult roles as persons of authority in Nineteenth Century America, before its next generation "passed" almost completely into white society.