Polish American Congress, Illinois Division

The Polish American Congress (PAC) was founded in May 1944 when representatives of the Polish American community met in Buffalo, NY to create a national organization. The founders envisioned an entity that would represent the interests of Polish Americans in the United States and continue the struggle for a free, democratic, and independent Poland.

Today, the Polish American Congress is an “umbrella” organization – a federation of more than 3,000 Polish American organizations, clubs, and veterans’ groups. The individual membership is organized into twenty-nine State Divisions and nine Chapters. In the aggregate, there are more than one million members of the PAC nationally. The organization maintains offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

The Polish American Congress adopted two complementary agendas: the Polish one – to help Poland in its great hour of need, and the American one – to unite the Polish American Community and to aid its members to become better- informed American citizens.