Harold Robert Perry

[1] He was also the first Black male provincial superior in the United States,[2] and the first African-American clergyman to deliver the opening prayer in Congress.

[2] Becoming more active in the civil rights movement, he joined the National Catholic Council for Interracial Justice upon its founding in 1960.

[8] In 1963, he and other religious leaders were invited to the White House to discuss peaceful desegregation with President John F.

[1] Perry's tenure as rector came to an end in 1964, when he became provincial superior of the Southern province of the Divine Word Society in the United States.

"[2] However, Bishop James Healy, the son of a white plantation owner and a biracial slave, holds the distinction of being the first African American to be elevated to the Catholic episcopate.

[6] White protestors held a demonstration outside his consecration, and one woman described it as "another reason why God will destroy the Vatican".

[1][3] He lived in the rectory on the grounds of Ursuline Academy, the oldest girls' school in the United States.

[7] He remained an auxiliary bishop until his death at the age of 74, due to complications of Alzheimer's disease at Wynhoven Health Care Center.