William Henry (Harrison) Heard (June 25, 1850 – September 12, 1937) was a clergyman of the African Methodist Episcopal Church who served as United States Ambassador to Liberia from 1895 through 1898.

George Heard was given permission by his owners to visit his family twice a week when his labor was not required (overnight, Wednesday-Thursday: Sunday).

At fifteen, having been assaulted by a drunken "boss man" and becoming aware of the potential ending of his slave status after the Civil War, he fled and began living with his father.

[2] After emancipation, while living with his father, Heard paid a white schoolboy ten cents a lesson to teach him basic literacy.

[4] In addition to being a minister, he was an active organizer and fundraiser, held appointments to numerous missions, and from 1888 attended all A.M.E. general conferences as delegate.

In 1887 Heard launched a legal challenge against the Georgia Railroad Company over its practice of providing separate and inferior accommodation for blacks while charging them full prices.

[5] With the help of Henry McNeal Turner, head Bishop of the AME Church, Heard obtained a diplomatic appointment, being nominated as Minister Resident and Consul General to Liberia by President Grover Cleveland on February 21, 1895.

Before returning to America, he toured Europe, observing during a visit to the British Museum that the mummies of Ancient Egypt were clearly of African, not Caucasian, ethnicity.

In response to reports circulating in the press that he had been refused accommodation by an Edinburgh hotel on grounds of color, he was invited to meet the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Simon, and his wife, at another.