Telegram Concerning Dillard University

A May 27, 1934, telegram from officials at Xavier University in New Orleans congratulates J. H. Dillard on the impending opening of a new African American university named in his honor. Dillard University, which combined New Orleans University and Straight College into one institution, was chartered in 1930 but did not commence operation until the autumn of 1935. Xavier University was a historically black, Catholic institution initially established as a secondary school by Sister Katherine Drexel. (Drexel, who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, was later canonized as a saint.) In the telegram, the Xavier officials compare Dillard to Drexel, since both have "been to the Negro cause through the years a light shining in darkness." 

Citation: Dillard Family Papers, 1717–1964, Accession #9498. Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.