In the 1920's seven Catholic African American families moved to
South Bend, IN from Mississippi. A Holy Cross priest, Father George O'Connor, CSC, who was teaching at the University of Notre Dame, heard about them and started to offer Mass for them on Sundays, first in an out building at St. Joseph Parish and later in a building on the west side of South Bend that the small group obtained. A second building was obtained and in 1928 the diocese decreed St. Augustine Parish. The parish church is now located at 1501 W. Washington Street, South Bend and is a multiracial parish in the African American tradition, which has served the inner-city since its founding.
Father George O'Connor was from Kansas and as a child his family and family farm were lost in a tornado. A neighboring African American farmer took young George in after that tragic event. So Father George had a long history with the African American community.