Historic Black university in New Orleans (1868–1934) that educated freed African Americans and trained civil rights pioneers.
Straight University was founded on June 12, 1868, by the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church to educate newly freed African Americans in post-Civil War New Orleans. Named after Seymour Straight, a wealthy cheese manufacturer from Hudson, Ohio, who provided the initial endowment, the institution began classes in a Congregational church before constructing a main building by 1871 at Esplanade Avenue and N. Derbigny Street. The university was destroyed by arson in 1877 as Union soldiers withdrew from New Orleans, leading to relocation to Canal Street and Tonti Street.
Straight offered courses ranging from elementary to college level in music, theology, liberal arts, industrial arts, and teacher training. The law department (1874–1886) was historically significant as an integrated institution where Black and white students trained side by side—of 50 law graduates, 35 were white. Notable law graduate Louis André Martinet (1876) published The Crusader civil rights newspaper and played a key role in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. The law department was discontinued in 1886 due to resource constraints and the school's focus shifted to liberal arts and teacher training.
Straight University struggled financially during the Great Depression and merged with New Orleans University in 1930 to form Dillard University, Louisiana's oldest historically black university. The campus buildings served as a school and YWCA for nearly two decades before demolition in 1950. Alumni made significant contributions to education, medicine, and civil rights, including founding the first hospital for African Americans in Detroit and serving as U.S. Ambassador to Liberia.