There are now close to three quarters of a million Americans of Slovak origin who were born across the ocean. Together with their American-born first and second generation sons and daughters, they represent a distinctive element in American national life.

Escaping in the ‘80's of the last century from oppression under the Hungarian rule, which tried to denationalize and magyarize the whole Slovak country, they never had any ideological conflict with American tradition and the American way of life. Quite the contrary. Here in America they have realized their human cultural and political rights, and have been able not only to progress individually and as a group but also to help their Slovak brethren in the shadow of the Tatra Mountains to gain their national freedom and the democratic privileges they enjoyed in the Republic of Czechoslovakia.