ustxtxb_obs_2006_06_02_50_00010-00000_000.pdf

A441070414 .4. , :<.? N,,w 4, *\(... ABOVE, In the kitchen area, an AmeriCorps volunteer helps feed 1,500 people a day. UPPER RIGHT, Father Jerome LeDoux at St. Augustine, in the Treme neighborhood, not far from the French Quarter. St. Augustine was founded in 1841 and is one of the oldest African American Catholic churches in the United States. After Katrina hit, the diocese planned to consolidate it with a neighboring church. Considering St. Augustine's rich history, this was unthinkable to parishioners. After I left, there was a sit-in and parishioners eventually managed to stave off the takeover of their church. LOWER RIGHT, I went with a volunteer to a three-story brick school in the Lower Ninth Ward. Common Ground Collective was working on cleaning the school, and one of the fellows said, "Come on up and look at the second floor and look at the blackboard." This was the tallest structure in the area, so a lot of people took shelter in the building. Before they left, they wrote on the blackboard that they had been stranded there. 10 THE TEXAS OBSERVER JUNE 2, 2006