Shaw University

complex, which housed both departments, consisted primarily of three structures – a four-story, 34 bed medical dormitory built to accommodate 60 men and erected in 1881 when the trustees approved the establishment of a medical department; the Leonard Medical Building, erected in the summer and fall of 1881 and containing lecture rooms, dissecting rooms, an amphitheater, and opened for its first session on November 1, 1881; the Leonard Medical School Hospital, a 25-bed hospital which opened for the reception of patients on January 10, 1885. It was the first four-year medical school to train African-American doctors in the South. and the first medical school in the state to offer a four-year curriculum. The school closed in 1918 after being given a scathing evaluation by the Flexner Report that the Negro school "was in no position to make any contribution of value" but recommended Howard and Meharry medical schools remain open.On December 11, 1888 the university opened the Shaw University Law School, the first …