Since its founding in 1846, the American Missionary Association, with its social and religious interests, was concerned with enhancing the condition of black Americans. It was an anti-slavery crusader and relief agency during and immediately after the Civil War, and later founded and maintained a chain of schools throughout the South. In 1861 the American Missionary Association founded its first institution of higher learning specifically aimed at educating black people—Hampton Institute (now University) in Virginia. Those that followed were Atlanta University in Georgia (1865), Fisk University in Tennessee (1866), Talladega College in Alabama (1867), LeMoyne (now merged to become LeMoyne-Owen) College in Tennessee (1870), Straight (now merged with New Orleans University to become Dillard University) in Louisiana (1868), Tougaloo College in Mississippi (1869), and Tillotson (now Huston-Tillotson) in Texas (1877).