Dillard University is a private, historically black university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 and incorporating earlier institutions founded as early as 1869 after the American Civil War, it is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. History The history of Dillard University dates to 1869 and its founding predecessor institutions—Straight University (later renamed Straight College) and Union Normal School (which developed into New Orleans University). Straight University Responding to the post-Civil War need to educate newly freed African Americans in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the surrounding region, the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church founded Straight University on June 12, 1868. Straight University also offered professional training, including a law department from 1874 to 1886. Its graduates participated in local and national Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction era civil rights struggles. Straight University was renamed Straight College in 1915, to better reflect the limitations of its curriculum. Union Normal School/New Orleans University The Union Normal School was established on July 8, 1868, by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church to train teachers. The Society also recruited teachers in the North to work in the South educating freedmen and their children. In addition to Straight University, the AMA helped found several other historically black colleges and universities, such as Clark Atlanta University, Fisk University, Hampton University, Howard University (with Freedmen's Bureau), Huston-Tillotson University, LeMoyne-Owen College, Talladega College, and Tougaloo College. Straight University and Union Normal School later became known and developed as Straight College and New Orleans University, respectively. Both schools offered education for elementary-level teachers, but quickly enlarged their curricula to include secondary, collegiate, and professional-level instruction. New Orleans University operated a secondary school—Gilbert Academy. By the 1890s, the university offered professional medical training. It included a school of pharmacy, the Flint Medical College, and the Sarah Goodridge Hospital and Nurse Training School. After the medical college was closed in 1911, the Flint Goodridge Hospital emerged and continued nurse training. "A Great Negro University in New Orleans": 1930–1935 Local Black and White leaders felt there was a need to develop a larger, more notable African-American institution of higher learning in New Orleans and the greater South. Due to economic hardships and rounds of negotiations between the two institutions, Straight College and New Orleans University chartered Dillard University on June 6, 1930. Named after James H. Dillard, the new university was created