Black Catholic history in Corpus Christi is not easy to piece together. Segregation reached into the Church and left no place for Black Catholic. They were not welcome at St. Patrick's Church, the only parish in the city at that time. A mission had been created in 1903 for the Hispanic population in the city, it was named Our Lady of Guadalupe. Blacks could attend there if they felt comfortable in a Spanish-speaking churchc. 

In 1913, the Diocese of Corpus Christi was established and Reverend Paul J. Nussbaum, a Passionist Priest was named the first Bishop. A member of his order, Reverend Mark Moeslein, joined him in this missionary effort. Moeslein, writing to his Provincial, had some candid remarks about the Diocese which Nussbaum had inherited. Referring to his remaining here, Moeslein said he "was prepared to abide by it as my contribution to the price for the privilege of having a Passionist Bishop. You know i have never enthused over the mitre for any of our in the United States. I enthuse even less over the one given us, since seeing what has fallen to our lot. It seems incredible that there could be such abject misery in America. Yet people tell me that I have been moving about the earthly paradise portion of the Corpus Christi Diocese!". The arrangement was that Moeslein would serve wherever assigned by the Bishop, supporting himself on a salary of $27.00 a month. 
As a result, Holy Cross had is beginning in 1914 when the evengelization of Blacks was canonically mandated. This makes the parish the second oldest in the city. The first baptisms took place in 1915; However since the parish had no physical church building, these baptisms actually took place in St. Patrick's (now the cathedral). Sunday Masses were celebrated at parishioners homes. 

In 1917, the parish of Holy Cross was formally established as an ethnic parish for all Black Catholics of the city. However, since there were only a handfull of families as parishioners there was no money to build a church. Stepping into the breach was Mother M. Katherine Drexel, who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. The daugher of a wealthy family she used her inheritance to help Blacks and Indians. She was instrumental in helping start Xavier College for Black in New Orleans. On a trip to the diocese in 1917, she became interested in Holy Cross and selected the site for the church and school. She liked the site because it had a view of both Corpus Christi and Nueces Bays. She used her own money to buy the land and stipulated to the Diocese that there must always be a Black parish in the city. The property on Black Street between Lake and Lobo Streets, almost an entire block was purchased. A two-story building was constructed providing a ground floor church and a school on the top floor. A frame building was purchased from George Emmert and moved to the property as a home for the nuns who would staff the school. A house was sold to the parish by a Baptist minister, Reverend Strong. It had been badly damaged in the 1916 hurricane and was rebuilt to serve at the rectory. The dedication of the church-school building took place on September 16, 1917 with Bishop Nussbaum officiating.