Jesuit priest; sociologist; college professor. Born– November 6, 1912, New Orleans. Parents– Albert S. and Gertrude Emily (Mavor) Foley. Education– St. Louis University, A.B., 1935; M.A., 1936; M.A., 1948; University of North Carolina, Ph.D., 1950; post doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan, 1952-1953. Entered the Jesuit Order (Society of Jesus) in 1929; ordained 1942. Taught at St. Louis University, 1950-1952; Spring Hill College, 1937-1939; 1944-1947, and 1953-. At Spring Hill, served as chairman of the Department of Sociology and Psychology and as director of the Human Relations Center.  Suppported racial equality but urged moderation and a gradual approach; helped mediate the desegregration of Mobile’s downtown lunch counters. Served as chairman of the Mobile Chapter of the Alabama Council on Human Relations and the Alabama Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.  Awarded a grant to conduct workshops for high school teachers to help prepare the way for integration of schools.  The Albert S. Foley Community Service Center at Spring Hill College is named in his honor. Died December 2, 1990.

Source:

Who’s Who in Alabama, Vol. II.

Publication(s):

Bishop Healy; Beloved Outcast …. New York; Farrar, Straus & Young, 1954.

Dream of an Outcast; Patrick F. Healy, S.J.; the Story of the Slaveborn Georgian Who Became the Second Founder of America’s First Great Catholic University, Georgetown. Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Portals Press, 1976.

God’s Men of Color:  The Colored Catholic Priests of the United States, 1854-1954.  New York:  Farrar, Straus, 1955.

A Modern Galahad; St. John Berchmans. Milwaukee, Wisc.; The Bruce Pub. Co., 1937.

St. Regis, a Social Crusader. Milwaukee, Wisc.; The Bruce Pub. Co., 1941.

Joint_Publication(s):

Democratic Living. Chicago; Loyola University Press, 1953.

Papers;

The personal papers of Father Albert Sidney Foley are held by the library at Spring Hill College in Mobile; the Maine State Library holds a small collection of his papers.  The American Folklife Center in Washington DC holds a file of oral history interviews.