Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO)

On September 21, 1959, classes began with 158 freshmen, one building, and fifteen faculty. The university had opened on a 17-acre site in Pontchartrain Park, one of the first subdivisions built for middle-class Black families in the city, developed in the 1950s. Act 28 of the Louisiana Legislature, passed September 4, 1956, had established the school as a branch of the Southern University System — the largest HBCU system in the country. SUNO is the only historically Black university within the New Orleans city limits.

Dr. Felton G. Clark, president of Southern, asked Dr. Emmett W. Bashful to open the campus. Bashful later wrote of arriving in August 1959 to find the one building under construction hardly near completion, the faculty only partially recruited, no office space available, and classes expected to begin in September. He started as dean, became vice president in 1969, and chancellor in 1977. The university offered ten courses in four academic disciplines: Humanities, Science, Social Science, and Commerce. The first graduation took place in May 1963, awarding baccalaureate degrees to 15 graduates. Within five years enrollment grew to 1,300 in the fall of 1964.

In January 1964, Virginia Cox Welch, a white high school teacher, filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against the Louisiana State Board of Education. The litigation opened the university to all regardless of race or color.

Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita damaged all 11 buildings of the Park Campus. Flood waters grew to eleven feet in the buildings. The university finished its fall 2005 semester on its sister campus in Baton Rouge. SUNO opened a temporary facility on February 14, 2006, at 6801 Press Drive on land the university owned. Enrollment had exceeded 3,600 students before Katrina. More than 2,000 students returned in the spring of 2006. By the fall of 2008, the student population climbed to 3,105. On August 17, 2009, FEMA announced more than $32 million in additional funding to rebuild four educational buildings. The first residence halls in the history of the institution opened in January 2010.

The campus sits at 6400 Press Drive and is open to visitors.