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An Overview of the History of the Slovak League of America
The Slovak League of America is a civic and cultural federation of Americans of Slovak ancestry founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1907. As an umbrella organization, it represents the overwhelming majority of organized Americans of Slovak ancestry. Affiliated with the League are the following American Slovak fraternal benefit societies: the First Catholic .Slovak Union of the U.S. and Canada, the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association, the Slovak Catholic Sokol, the National Slovak Society, and the Ladies Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union. Also affiliated with it are other Slovak cultural institutions and local groups in various parts of the United States.
The Slovak League was born in response to the need to bring the sad political and social plight of the Slovak nation at home, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to world view.
For centuries the ancestral homeland of Slovakia had been ruled by Hungary. Known as "Upper Hungary", in the 19th century Budapest inaugurated an intensive program to "Magyarize its Slavic minorities, including the Slovaks. Slovak names were changed to Hungarian; higher education was limited only to those who declared themselves as Hungarian; Slovak language newspapers were censored; Slovak language instruction in secondary schools greatly curtailed; and Slovak cultural institutions suppressed. Study of the Hungarian language was mandated in all schools in what was historically Slovakia. The final resolve was the infamous "Cernova Massacre" of 1907. The Rev. Andrew Hlinka, a Catho1ic priest who had been suspended by his bishop and sen tenced to prison for his pro Slovak activities, was a native of Cernova. He instituted the construction of a new church there and the parishioners wanted him to be present for the church's dedication. Disregarding the wishes of the people, the Bishop of Spis, a promoter of Magyarization, decided to dedicate the church without having Father Hlinka present. His attempt ended in tragedy. After the local villagers blocked the entrance of the bishop's representative, Hungarian gendarmes began to fire upon the peasants indiscriminately into the crowd packed together as it was a narrow roadway. Nine persons were killed on the spot, including two women; three more succumbed to their wounds in the course of the day; twelve more were seriously wounded and three of their number subsequently died. Among the slain was a woman far advanced with child, who in her dying agony gave birth to an infant. The number of persons wounded exceeded sixty. A total of 36 years and six months' imprisonment was imposed on the Slovak peasants. The publicity of this event, especially through the efforts of Seton-Watson, a British student of Hungarian affairs, led this tragedy to be like "a shot heard round the world." The event exposed to world view the harsh treatment of the non-Hungarian minorities by Budapest. |
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©2005 Slovak League of America
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