James Augustine Healy

James Augustine Healy (born April 6, 1830, near Macon, Georgia, U.S.—died August 5, 1900, Portland, Maine) was the first African American Roman Catholic bishop in the United States and an advocate for children and Native Americans. Healy was one of 10 children born on a Georgia cotton plantation to an Irish immigrant and his common-law wife, an enslaved mixed-race woman. Because Healy and his siblings were legally considered illegitimate and were enslaved, they were barred...