Slavic Americans are an underrepresented group in North American History and media, and we are looking to unite for recognition and representation. A big first step is getting June recognized as Slavic Heritage month!

The Slavic people are a group of many cultures that share a common but unique history: Belarus, Bosnia, Montenegro, Carpathio-Rusyn, Polish, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, and Ukraine. Slavic Americans, both ancestral and current day immigrants, often left the Slavic homelands looking for a different life than what Central and Eastern European socio-political situation was offering. Although Slavic culture flourished in the Middle Ages, the 17th century through to the early 20th century saw most Slavic lands under the dominance of foreign powers such as the Prussians, Hungarians, Austrians, and Ottomans.

During World War II Slavic lands and dignity were ravaged by Hitler and the Nazis. This was followed by decades of economic and political suppression under Soviet communism. Currently, there is continued turmoil in the Slavic lands, most pressing Ukraine and Russia. This continues to send many Slavic families into migration, often to North America.

Immigration, no matter what century, is not a simple thing. The Slavs that migrated to the U.S. during the first ways of immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries were met with unfair wages, and were treated poorly. Racial slurs such as Bohunks or Hunky occurred, and pressured Slavs to assimilate into western cultures. Like many immigrants at the time they were subject to discriminatory and exclusionary treatment. For instance, in Texas, the KKK targeted Czech American churches and organizations, and in Pennsylvania Poles and other Slavic Americans were subject to discriminatory attitudes. In order to survive, unfortunately, our ancestors assimilated to the mainstream "white" culture. Most 2nd generation Americans never learned their homeland customs, language, history, or culture. They were able to survive but at the cost of their cultural identity. . This has led to the contributions of Slavic Americans, both of the past and present, to be hidden as simply “white-American contributions.” We reject this label and work to not let this labeling continue for the Slavic-Americans’ contributions of today.

All Slavic groups possess our own unique and meaningful cultural practices that can and do co-exist as we contribute to the wider experience of American life.

The world needs to know that the American Revolutionary War hero, Cashmir Pulaski, was a polish immigrant, that the father of the iconic Dobro guitar was Slovak immigrant John Dopyera, that the famous soup can art was from Carpathio-Rusyn Andy Warhol, and that the contributions to science by Nicola Tesla is a part of Serbian-American history.

It is time for the past and continued contributions of Slavic-Americans to be known! Join us in honoring our heritage and present day Slavic-American Culture! Sign our petition and let's bring awareness to the presence and impact of the Slavic culture in America and celebrate that this and every June