"It is an interesting fact of our 50 law graduates, 35 have been white." The school struggled to provide its law students with a proper research library. The students typically met for classes in the law professors' offices. In 1886, Straight discontinued the Law Department. It began to focus primarily on liberal arts, industrial arts, and teacher training. Campus The campus faced Canal Street, occupying the block between Tonti and Rocheblave streets backed by Gasquet (now Cleveland Avenue). After the university was merged with the newly created Dillard University, the campus buildings served as a school and YWCA for nearly two decades. They were demolished in 1950. Notable alumni Some graduates brought education and medical care to African Americans during the early part of the 20th century. Physician James W. Ames, for example, founded the first hospital for blacks in Detroit in 1910. He created Dunbar Hospital for physicians and patients of color, as they were unable to practice in or be admitted to Detroit hospitals operated by whites. Nellie A. Ramsey Leslie became a pioneer teacher in Indian Territory and later in Texas. Other notable alumni include Tom Yarborough, the first Black mayor in California, P.B.S. Pinchback (first African-American governor of Louisiana and of any U.S. state); Ernest Lyon (educator and U.S. Ambassador to Liberia); Mary Booze (first African American to sit on the Republican National Committee, serving from Mississippi from 1924 to 1948); Alice Dunbar Nelson, forerunner of the Harlem Renaissance; and Theodore K. Lawless (dermatologist and philanthropist). See also Storer College Notes Laborde & Magill (2006). "Canal Street: New Orleans' great wide way". External links Straight University and Professor H.H. Swain Collection at The Historic New Orleans Collection Educational institutions established in 1868 Universities and colleges in New Orleans Defunct private universities and colleges in Louisiana Educational institutions disestablished in 1934 Dillard University 1868 establishments in Louisiana 1934 disestablishments in Louisiana