Thomy Lafon

Who was Thomy Lafon?

Thomy Lafon was a Creole business man, philanthropist and human rights activist in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. 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 teacher for 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 local charities and the Charity Hospital, Lafon Old Folks Home, Dillard University and the Sisters of the Holy Family, an order of African-American nuns. 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. 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.