"James Augustine Healy"(April 6,1830-August 5,1900).

Was the first African-American Roman Catholic priest and first African-American Roman

Catholic bishop in the United States.At the time his ancestry was not widely known.(Augustus Tolton is therefore sometimes credited as the first black Catholic priest in the U.S.)James was of the numerous mixed-race siblings of the Catholic Healy family of Georgia,who achieved many "first"as blacks and Catholics.Father Healy was the eldest of 10 siblings born near Macon Georgia in 1839 to an Irish immigrant plantation owner and his wife,an African-American former slave.Beginning in 1837,like many other wealthy planters with mixed-race children,the family sent their sons to school in the North.James Hugh and Patrick,raised Catholic, went to Quaker schools in Flushing,New York.Later they each attended the newly opened College of the Holy Cross in Worcester,Massachusetts.James graduated valedictorian of the College's first graduating class in 1849.Following graduation James wished to enter the priesthood.He could not study at the Jesuit novitiate in Maryland as it was a slave state. With the help of John Bernard Fitzpatrick,the founder of the College of the Holy Cross,James entered a Sulpician seminary in Montreal.In 1852,he transferred to study at Saint Sulpice seminary in Paris,working toward a doctorate and a career as a seminary professor.After a change of heart,he decided to become a pastor.He was ordained as a priest on June 10, 1854 of Boston Massachusetts at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.He was the first African-American to be ordained a roman Catholic priest.When James returned to the United States,he became an assistant pastor in Boston.In 1866 Michael became the pastor of St.James Church,the largest Catholic congregation in Boston.in 1874 when the Boston legislature was considering taxation of churches,Michael defended Catholic institutions as vital organizations that helped the state both socially and financially.He also condemned existing laws,which were generally enforced only on Catholic institutions.His success in the public sphere led to his appointment by Pope Pius IX to the position of second hand bishop of Portland,Maine.Michael was officially ordained as Bishop of Portland on June 2,1875,becoming the first African-American ordained Catholic Bishop.For 25 years,he governed his large diocese,supervising also the founding of the Diocese of Manchester,New Hampshire,when it was spilt from Portland in 1885.During his time in Maine,which was a period of extensive immigration from Catholic countries,Michael oversaw the establishment of 60 new Churches, 68 missions, and 18 schools.Although acutely aware of racism, Michael turned down seeral opportunities to condemn it on a public stage.He refused to participate in organizations that were specifically African American.Michael declined to speak at the Congress of Colored Catholic in 1889,1890, and 1892.The Archdiocese of Boston,Office for Black Catholics has designated the Bishop James Augustine Healy  Award to honor dedicated black parishioners.In 1975, a bronze plaque was dedicated in Jones County,Georgia,commemorating the Georgia-born Bishop.The plaque was a gift from Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan of Atlanta and Bishop Raymond Lessard of Savannah.