Patrick Francis Healy
| Patrick Francis Healy, S.J. | |
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29th President of Georgetown University |
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In office 1874–1882 |
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| Preceded by | Rev. John Early, S.J. |
| Succeeded by | Rev. James A. Doonan, S.J. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
February 27, 1830 Macon, Georgia |
| Died | January 10, 1910 (aged 79) |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Patrick Francis Healy (February 27, 1830 – January 10, 1910) was a Jesuit priest, educator, and the 29th President of Georgetown University (1874–1882), known for expanding the school following the American Civil War. Healy Hall was constructed during Healy's tenure and is named after him. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in the late 20th century.
Although Healy was accepted as and identified as Irish-American during his lifetime, in the 1950s and 1960s his mixed-race ancestry became more widely known and acknowledge. He was recognized as the first person of African-American descent to earn a PhD; the first to become a Jesuit priest; and the first to be president of Georgetown University, or any predominantly white college in the United States.
Patrick, as he was known, was born into slavery in 1830 in Macon, Georgia, to the Irish-American plantation owner Michael Healy and his African-American slave Mary Eliza. Mary Eliza was mixed-race (mulatto), the daughter of a black slave and white slaveowner. Because of the law established during colonial slavery in the United States that children took the legal status of the mother, by the principle of partus sequitur ventrum, Patrick and his siblings were legally considered slaves in Georgia, although their father was free and they were three-quarters or more European in ancestry.
Patrick was the third son of Mary Eliza and Michael Morris Healy, who had joined in a common-law marriage in 1829. After Patrick's father Michael bought his mother Mary Eliza, he fell in love with her and made her his common-law wife. The law prohibited their marriage, but they lived together all their lives. Discriminatory laws in Georgia prohibited the education of slaves and required legislative approval for each act of manumission, making these essentially impossible to gain. Michael Healy arranged for all his children to leave Georgia and move to the North to obtain their educations and have opportunities in their lives. They were raised as Irish Catholics. Patrick's brothers and sisters were nearly all educated in Catholic schools and colleges. Many achieved notable firsts for Americans of mixed-race ancestry during the second half of the 19th century, and the Healy family of Georgia was remarkable successful.
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