The structure of social organizations and community life has grown up and adapted itself to the needs of successive generations of Polish immigrants to America from mid-nineteenth century to the present.

As one of the largest immigrant populations to come to America from Europe -- an estimated 2.5 million arrived from 1860 to 1918 -- the Poles brought a distinct language, traditions, and values which shaped their group life. Profoundly devoted to Roman Catholicism, which was their predominant faith, and to an emergent Polish nationalism, the Poles created an extensive network of organizations.