The Union Normal School was established on July 8, 1868, by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church to train teachers.

Both schools offered education for elementary-level teachers, but quickly enlarged their curricula to include secondary, collegiate, and professional-level instruction.

After the medical college was closed in 1911, the Flint Goodridge Hospital emerged and continued nurse training.

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.

[2] Named after James H. Dillard,[3] the new university was created to "... offer a traditional liberal arts curriculum—rather than nonprofessional, vocational training" and emphasize a close engagement with the Black community through "various education extension programs, societies, and clubs.

The increased numbers of African-American bus riders in the Gentilly area, as students started attending classes, disturbed some white residents.

Edgar B. Stern Sr, an influential and diplomatic member of Dillard's board of trustees, suggested Will W. Alexander as a compromise candidate for president.

Dillard University opened its doors in the fall of 1935, and was able to attract prominent scholars such as Horace Mann Bond, psychology and education; Frederick Douglass Hall, music; Lawrence D. Reddick, history; and St. Clair Drake, sociology and anthropology.

In August 2005, the campus, not far from the lower levee breach of the London Avenue Canal, suffered extensive flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

As is tradition, Dillard held graduation on the Rosa Freeman Keller Avenue of the Oaks in July 2006.

[7][8] In November 2016, Raycom Media rented a space at Dillard University to host a debate with senatorial candidates, including David Duke.

[9][10][11] In 2019, Dillard signed a partnership with a for-profit college, Ross University School of Medicine, to increase the number of African American physicians in the US.

Most departments offer courses in methodology, and the university's Office of Undergraduate Research organizes additional workshops on writing proposals, analyzing data, and using human participants.

Under the current leadership of Edward Anderson, Assistant Professor of Music and Director of the IOJC, the institute is producing curriculum and programming on the collegiate and the secondary levels.

Dillard University's campus is located on 55 acres (22.3 ha) in the suburban-like Gentilly neighborhood of the New Orleans 7th Ward district.

This building houses the university's administrative offices and was under construction due to damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but has since re-opened.

Samuel DuBois Cook Fine Arts and Communications Center at Dillard University, New Orleans, was built in 1993.

The building is named in honor of Dillard University's sixth president, Samuel DuBois Cook.

In this building are The Division of Campus Life, Career Services, Student Development, Student Government Association, the Daniel C. Thompson/Samuel Dubois Cook Honors Program, offices, classrooms, computer labs, a dance studio, a weight center and an Olympic-size swimming pool.

The university's bookstore and temporary library are housed in Henson Hall due to space constraints following Hurricane Katrina.

The library houses an extensive collection of books, journals, microform and newspapers, as well as such historical documents as the papers of the American Missionary Association of the United Church of Christ.

Now named Lawless Assembly Hall, it is the only building on Dillard's campus that did not suffer flood damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The building was named in honor of a Louisiana native, educator and missionary, Bishop Alexander Priestly Camphor.

Named after William Nelson, the first African American president of the university, it was destroyed by fire during Hurricane Katrina.