Considered property by law, Healy's sons were barred from schools in Georgia. Unable to educate his sons properly at home, the family determined to send them North for schooling. Mr. Healy's attempt to escape the stifling Georgia Black Codes was hampered by the shocking amount of bigotry and prejudice displayed to him by Northern school officials. After an exhausting search, he located a Quaker school in Flushing, Long Island, willing to accept his three eldest sons.
The educational paths of all four boys eventually converged on the College of the Holy Cross at Worcester, Massachusetts. Here James, Patrick, and Sherwood fully embraced the Catholic faith of their father, who had fallen out of practice because of the lack of Catholics and churches in Georgia at the time of his settlement. These three would later pursue priestly vocations which would stimulate and illustrate their talents for service, compassion, and learning. James would become the first black bishop in the American Catholic Church; Patrick would serve as president and rector of Georgetown University; Sherwood became director of the seminary in Troy, New York, and rector of the Cathedral in Boston. The future Captain Healy was baptized at Holy Cross like his brothers, but would undertake a career in the Revenue Cutter Service, a branch now part of the Coast Guard. Known as "Hell-Roaring Mike," he is still a legendary figure in Alaska and the Coast Guard.
Having been freed from the clutches of legal and overt prejudice by a father of devotion and foresight, the four Healy brothers would take advantage of their opportunities to become impor- tant figures in American history as well as the Black heritage of the United States.
-William M. Ferraro C '82
