John McDonogh (December 29, 1779 – October 26, 1850) was an American entrepreneur whose adult life was spent in south Louisiana and later in Baltimore.

He made a fortune in real estate and shipping, and as a slave owner, he supported the American Colonization Society, which organized transportation for freed people of color to Liberia.

After he lost that election, he left New Orleans and settled across the Mississippi River, establishing the town of McDonoghville, now called McDonogh, which is in present-day Algiers and Gretna.

The young McDonogh was mentioned as having unsuccessfully courted Micaela Almonester, who went on to become the Baroness Pontalba, one of the most important figures in New Orleans history; however, there are no documented sources of this rumor.

He was a prominent citizen but not well-loved; one obituary proclaimed his benevolence, "notwithstanding the general opinion to the contrary,"[5] while another noted that "his manners were rigid, severe and repelling,"[6] and a third observed that he left "no friends to grieve at his death.

"[7] William H. Seymour, a local and near-contemporary chronicler, described him in 1896 as having been an "eccentric philanthropist" who "for twenty-two long years toiled" within the walls of his "somber dwelling".

[8] McDonogh was a workaholic and worked long hours almost until the time of his death, administering his vast land holdings, which were believed to be the largest (but not the most valuable) of any private individual in the country in 1850 when he died.

[11] McDonogh was also active in, and contributed to, the American Colonization Society, which enabled freed black slaves to emigrate back to Africa.

Wishing to prepare the pair further to become missionaries, John McDonogh arranged for them to begin studies at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania starting in May 1838.

[14] Washington struggled academically; he left the college in June 1842, and went on to spend the rest of his life in Liberia, eventually becoming elected to the lower house of the national legislature.

David refused to be deported to Liberia, however, and eventually settled in New York City where he was active in politics and medicine.

[14] Although during his life McDonogh was an infamous miser,[15] he left the bulk of his fortune—close to $2 million[16]—to the cities of Baltimore and New Orleans for the purpose of building public schools for poor children—specifically, white and freed black children.

On June 13, 2020, protestors toppled the bust of John McDonogh from its base in Duncan Plaza and tossed it into the Mississippi River.