Background
Howze was born in Daphne, Alabama. His mother died when he was five. He grew up with neighbors who were Catholic and attributes his Catholicism to that influence.
Howze was born in Daphne, Alabama. His mother died when he was five. He grew up with neighbors who were Catholic and attributes his Catholicism to that influence.
Bachelor of Science, Alabama State University, 1948. Postgraduate, Phillips College, Gulfport, Mississippi, 1980. Doctor of Laws (honorary), University Portland, 1974.
Doctor of Laws (honorary), St. Bonaventure University, 1977. Doctor of Laws (honorary), Manhattan College, New York City, 1979. HHD (honorary), Sacred Heart College, Belmont, North Carolina, 1977.
HHD (honorary), Lift Bible Crusade College, 1987. HHD (honorary), Belmont Abbey College, 1999. HHD (honorary), Christ the King Seminary, 2002.
He served as Bishop of Biloxi from 1977 to 2001. He is the oldest of four children born to Albert Otis Howze Senior and Helen Lawson Howze. He has six siblings in total.
He was later transferred to the segregated public schools of Mobile, graduating from Mobile County Secondary School in 1944.
He graduated from Alabama State Branch Junior College in 1946. In 1948 he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Alabama State University.
He taught science in the public school system and was later hired to teach at Saint Monica School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1952. After expressing an interest in the Priesthood, Howze was accepted to study for the priesthood at Christ the King Seminary at Saint Bonaventure University in New York (receiving his Doctor of Divinity in 1959), and was ordained for the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, on May 7, 1959.
He served as a pastor in Asheville.
On November 8, 1972 Howze was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Natchez-Jackson, Mississippi, and Titular Bishop of Maxita by Pope Paul VI. He was consecrated to the episcopate on January 28, 1973 by Archbishop Luigi Raimondi, the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, with Bishops Harold Robert Perry, South.V.D., and Joseph Bernard Brunini serving as co-consecrators. When the Diocese of Biloxi was created in 1977, Howze was appointed as its first bishop. He was the first black bishop in the 20th century to head a diocese in the United States.
He retired June 6, 2001.
Member Mississippi Health Care Commission. Member administrative board, vacation committee NOCB/USCC. Member education committee USCC, member social development and world peace committee.
Liaison committee to National Office of Black Catholics NCCB. Trustee Xavier University, New Orleans. Board directors Biloxi Regional Medical Center.
Member of Knights of St. Peter Claver, Knights of Columbus.
