Harold Robert Perry

Harold Robert Perry, S.V.D. (October 9, 1916 – July 17, 1991) was an American Catholic prelate who served as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1966 to 1991. He was the first openly African-American Catholic bishop, the second overall, and the first since 1875.

A member of the Society of the Divine Word, Perry was also the first Black male provincial superior in the United States, and the first African-American clergyman to deliver the opening prayer in Congress.

Harold Perry was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Frank J. Perry, a rice mill worker, and his wife Josephine, a domestic cook. The eldest of six children, he was raised in a devoutly Catholic and French-speaking home. His cousin Louis V. Ledoux would become the first Black diocesan priest in the Deep South. At age 13, Perry entered St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, the Black seminary of the Society of the Divine Word. He continued his studies at ecclesiastical institutions in Illinois and Wisconsin. In 1938, he took vows as a member of the order.

On January 6, 1944, Perry was ordained to the priesthood. He was the 26th African American to become a Catholic priest. He then served as assistant pastor at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Lafayette until 1948, when he was transferred to Notre Dame Church in St. Martinville. He served at St. Peter's Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, (1949–1951) and at St. Gabriel's Church in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, (1951–52) before returning to Louisiana as founding pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Broussard. During his six years as pastor there, he built the church, rectory and school.

In 1958, Perry was named rector of his alma mater, St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis. Becoming more active in the civil rights movement, he joined the National Catholic Council for Interracial Justice upon its founding in 1960. Writing in the Catholic monthly Interracial Review in 1961, Perry said:

Catholic institutions could have won great respect among Southern Negroes if they had dropped segregation long ago. In many instances, segregation continues up to and including the Communion rail. We have missed a real opportunity to impress the Negro with the true attitude of the church.

In 1963, he and other religious leaders were invited to the White House to discuss peaceful desegregation with President John F. Kennedy. 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. That same year, he also became the first African-American clergyman to deliver the opening prayer in Congress.

On September 29, 1965, Perry was appointed titular bishop of Mons in Mauretania and auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans by Pope Paul VI. He was the second-ever African American to become a Catholic bishop. Announcing Perry's appointment, Archbishop Philip Hannan said, "We welcome the first American-born Negro bishop." 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.