Because of Jim Crow laws in the 1850s, emancipated black Catholic attendees of St. Matthew's Cathedral on Rhode Island Avenue were segregated and relegated to worship in the basement of the church.

In 1858, the group of emancipated black Catholics founded Saint Martin de Porres Church, in honor of Peruvian Dominican brother St Martin de Porres.

In 1928, it acquired property at 15th and S Streets N.W., where it eventually built a new school, rectory, convent, and new church building.

On November 12, 1982, Cardinal Hickey decreed that the parish would be renamed once again to Saint Augustine Catholic Church.

In 2019, the church had 3,000 members in an active congregation of approximately 1,000 families, primarily Black and middle-class.