Mrs. Isabel Samuels, Mrs. Willie Evelyn Malone (St. Peter Villa)
Jenny Marshall (Willow Bend at Marion Ark Nursing Home)
Mr. Floyd Shavers (Metro Community Care Home)
Ill at Home
Mrs. Audrey Allen, Mr. Herbert Allen, Mr. Joseph Alsandor, Mrs. Annie Hines Atkins, Mrs. Essie Berry, Mrs. Monique Meacham Bethany, Mr. Gerald Bond, Mrs. Lula Crawford, Mr. Robert Crowley, Mrs. Judy Epps, Mrs. Wendy Funches, Mrs. Marshia Gilmore, Mr. Emory Gordon, Mrs. Lottie Gordon, Ms. Jacqueline Guerrero,Mr. William Harris, Mr. Darrell Hollimon, Mr. Willie Hollimon, Mrs. Helen Hoof, Mr. Robert Hooper, Dr. William Johnson, Mrs. Mary M. Jones, Mrs. Teresa Kimbrough, Mrs. Laura Kinchelow, Mrs. Mary Monroe, Mrs. Maurice McDonald, Mrs. Florine McMillan, Mrs. Bobby Redmond, Mr. Frank Reynolds, Mr. Stanley Robinson, Mrs. Allura Tate, Mrs. Forrestine Weed, Mr. Malcolm Weed, Mr. Johnnie Weaver.
A Strong Tradition, Getting Stronger
The Bishop and Fr. Bertrand
The current St. Augustine parish was constituted by the Bishop of Nashville William Adrian, on June 29, 1937. The parish at that time had no name, but was carved from St. Anthony of Padua Parish. The parish included all territory in Memphis and Shelby County south of Madison Avenue.
The parish was founded for African Americans (stated as "Coloreds" in that era), and Bishop Adrian asked the Franciscan Friars of St. Louis to staff the new parish.
A building at 903 Walker was purchased by the Diocese of Nashville from the "Women's and Young Women's Christian Association of Memphis, Tennessee" on June 3, 1937. Though still unnamed, most assumed (wrongly, it proved later) that it would be named after the black Peruvian Saint Martin de Porres.
On July 19, 1937 Bishop Adrian officially appointed Fr. Bertrand Koch, O.F.M. as pastor of the new parish.
St. Augustine of Hippo In a letter from Bishop Adrian to Fr. Bertrand on July 31, 1937 the Bishop informed Fr. Bertrand that his petition to Rome to name the new parish in honor of Blessed Martin DePorres had been denied. The Bishop suggested either St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Paul the Apostle or St. Catherine of Alexandria since they were all associated with apostolates in Africa.
The first Directors of the Parish were William F. Taylor, J.S. McDonald, A. Braxton, Dr. W.B. Woods, Dr. Chris Rouhlac, and Dr. J.W. Hose.
Dr. J. W.Hose, a Catholic convert, had actively urged Bishop Adrian to support the Negro community. History shows that Bishop Adrian was not fully disposed towards equity for the Negro; he was entrenched in the restrictive beliefs (for people of color) of his era. Dr. Hose was the true supporter.
By August 14, 1937, the parish had been named St. Augustine, because the title was used when an agreement was signed with the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Dubuque, Iowa to conduct a school for the new parish.
A Foundation Laid for Education Father Bertrand worked hard to assemble second-hand furnishings--as was the custom for even state-run educational institutions for people of color. And, on August 18, two of the 600 Sisters who had volunteered to teach "colored children" in Memphis, arrived to assess the three-story building that Father Bertrand had fasioned as the Catholic School and Convent.
Ultimately, four Sisters were chosen and approved as the new faculty. Ironically, the Sisters were met with unexpected hostility from whites, who were less than excited about the prospect of Negroes being educated.
The first Mass celebrated at the new parish by Fr. Bertrand was on August 28, 1937, the Feast Day of St. Augustine. On September 5, 1937, Bishop Adrian visited the new parish and officially installed Fr. Bertrand as Pastor.
In September, 1937, St. Augustine's School opened to 90 students, and by the end of October it had an enrollment of 131.
Two thirds of the children in the school professed a faith other than Catholic. Four classrooms accommodated eight grades on the second floor of the building. Catholic students paid $1 a month tuition; children of other faiths were charged $2 a month.
"Father B" Fills Pews Slowly there was growth. In the beginning, the new parish had about 32 adult Catholics who had come from St. Anthony Parish, but through the school and convert classes, its membership quickly increased. During the first year, Fr. Bertrand baptized 145 men, women and children. The number of parishioners by the end of the year was about 300. In the following years, the average number of converts was 70 persons.
During these years, Fr. Bertrand went regularly to dead-end streets to preach and, on some evenings, showed movies and slides to children and their parents. Eventually, he was stopped by the police who used anti-noise laws as the reason for bringing the outdoor catechizing efforts to an end.
The first class graduated from St. Augustine High School in 1944. Fr. Rene, OFM, designed and built a two-story annex to the school in 1944-45. As the school expanded, five "gunshot" houses were purchased in 1946 and 1947 and converted into classrooms.
By 1948, the number of BVM Sisters staffing the school had increased from four to fourteen, and the children in the grade school and high school totaled 570.
“One of the natural signs of a true Paulist is that he would prefer to suffer from the excesses of liberty rather than from the arbitrary actions of tyranny.”
Father Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers
