Magic Johnson Donates $500K to Xavier University

Magic Johnson has donated $500K to Xavier University in honor of Norman C. Francis, the first Black President of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

The school organized a ceremony to honor the revered scholar, who had led the school for almost 50 years, and accepted the donation. This year, Xavier University is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and they unveiled a statue dedicated to the former president and civil rights leader, Norman C. Francis. 

According to the university, Eavin “Magic” Johnson pledged the $500,000 to the university during a gala that raised more than $2 million for student scholarships. 

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A Statue To Honor A True Scholar’s Legacy

Francis was the first Black President of Xavier University, serving for 47 years. He also chaired the Louisiana Recovery Authority after Hurricane Katrina and received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush.

“I’m so blessed to know him,” Johnson said at the gala, which President Francis, now 94 years old, attended. The large turnout, Johnson commented, is a tribute to the “man that you are, all the great things you’ve done in your stellar career and all the people you’ve helped become successful.”

The life-size statue of Francis stands outside St. Katharine Drexel Chapel. The Catholic Church named the chapel after Catholic nun Katharine Drexel, who founded a high school in 1915 that eventually became Xavier University. Katharine Drexel was later canonized as a saint in 2000. And it is just steps from where Pope John Paul II spoke in 1987 during a visit to the university while Francis was president.

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Dr. Reynold Verret, president of Xavier University, said the statue is more than a tribute. “It reflects the spirit that you infused in this campus community—the spirit of courage, compassion, and excellence,” he said.

Norman C. Francis’s Storied Journey At Xavier University

A Lafayette native who grew up during segregation, Francis graduated from Xavier before becoming one of the first two Black students to earn a law degree from Loyola University New Orleans. 

He was chosen to lead Xavier in 1968 and remained president for 47 years — one of the country’s longest tenures of any university leader. During that time, he helped Xavier triple its enrollment and earn a reputation as an incubator of Black excellence whose graduates have become judges, politicians, and doctors.

He was also active in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1961, while a dean at Xavier, he opened a dorm to house the Freedom Riders, civil rights activists who rode buses through the South, challenging racial segregation and enduring violence from White mobs. He was a leader in the community, an early investor in the New Orleans Saints, and an organizer of recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina.

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In 2006, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. And in 2021, a roadway that previously bore the name of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was renamed the Norman C. Francis Parkway.

Main Image: Magic Johnson, Stock Image