Saint Augustine Catholic Church stands in Tremé as a monument to an extraordinary act of defiance.

In 1842, before the official dedication, free people of color began purchasing pews for their families. When word spread, white parishioners launched their own buying campaign. The result was the "War of the Pews" – a battle the free people of color won decisively, acquiring three pews for every one purchased by white families.

But they didn't stop there.

In an unprecedented move, these Creole Catholics bought all the side aisle pews and gave them to enslaved people, creating America's first truly integrated Catholic church. The pink Italian marble altar still gleams beneath an Egyptian "eye of God" skylight, while the original mid-nineteenth-century pews remain arranged as Father Jerome LeDoux positioned them.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours use this church to reveal how Tremé's free people of color challenged segregation through strategic religious resistance, turning Sunday worship into revolutionary political action.