Dillard University is a private, historically black liberal arts college in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 incorporating earlier institutions that went back to 1869, it is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. The campus is near Gentilly Boulevard and the London Avenue Canal, established in the 1930s. The history of Dillard University dates back to 1869 and its founding predecessor institutions--Straight University (later to be renamed Straight College) and Union Normal School (which was to become New Orleans 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, and its graduates participated in local and national Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction era civil rights struggles. Straight University was renamed Straight College in 1915.