Georgetown’s African-American President

Today marks the death of Father Patrick Healy (1834-1910), the Jesuit who is considered Georgetown’s second founder. Born in Georgia, he studied at Holy Cross before joining the Jesuits. He earned a doctorate at the Louvain and was ordained in 1864. He was then assigned to Georgetown, where one student described him as “a finished scholar, a remarkable, linguist, and the clearest thinker and expounder of his thoughts that I have ever met.” In 1874, he was appointed president. Over the next eight years, Healy turned Georgetown into a national university by modernizing the curriculum, expanding the law and medical schools, fundraising drives, creating an alumni association, and major construction projects. After Georgetown he served in various parishes until his death. Of his three brothers, one became a bishop, another was rector of Boston’s cathedral, and a third a Coast Guard captain; two sisters entered religious life. The Healys were an impressive family, but few knew that their mother was African-American and had been a slave on their father’s plantation. In fact, their ancestry didn’t become public knowledge until the 1950’s. Professor James O’Toole at Boston College has written a fascinating book about the family titled Passing for White: Race, Religion and the Healy Family, 1820-1920. One final tidbit is worth noting. In 1872, Father Healy received former First Lady (and ex-slaveholder) Julia Gardiner Tyler (1820-1889) into the Catholic Church.