Thomy Lafon

 

a Creole business man, philanthropist human rights activist

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

(1810-1893)

. He was born poor, but was a free person of color.He started out selling cakes to workers, opened a small store, was a school reacher at a time and became successful at money lending and real estate investment. He was an opponent of slavery and supported racial integration in schools.

Lafon is mostly known for his large donations to the American Anti-Slavery Society, the Underground Railroad, the Catholic School for Indigent Orphans, the Louisiana Association for the Benefit of Colored Orphans and other charities for both blacks and whites.In his will he also gave funds to locals charities and the Charity Hospital, Lafon Old Folks Home, Dillard University and the Sisters of the Holy Family, an African-American nun order.[1][2]

The Thomy Lafon school was called "the best Negro schoolhouse in Louisiana"

The Thomy Lafon school was called "the best Negro schoolhouse in Louisiana"

but was burned down by a white mob during the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900.[3] Lafon also supported Tribune, the first black-owned newspaper in the south after the American Civil War. He never married and died on December 22, 1893.[1]

 

Source wikipedia.com

 

The Thomy Lafon school More on Lafon ...Blackpast.org

 

Odyssey House New Orleans, LA, is part of the legacy of Creole of Color philanthropist Thomy Lafon. At his death in 1893, Mr. Lafon left an estate of nearly $600,000 to numerous charitable organizations. Included were two buildings that served as an orphanage for children who lost their parents to the Civil War. Since 1973, those buildings have been the home of a nonprofit behavioral healthcare facility that is being restored with help from the Partners in Preservation program, funded by American Express in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.