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Brigadier Gen. Casimir Pulaski was a Polish military officer who fought beside American colonists against the British during the Revolutionary War.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, on March 6, 1745, he was a cavalry officer and rebelled against the Polish King Stanislaw II, which forced him to exile in France. He met Benjamin Franklin, who recruited him to the colonies and the fight for independence. He offered his services as a private solider to Gen. George Washington. […]
Pulaski never made it to the land that would become Illinois prior to his 1779 death, but many Polish people did. Chicago was once home to the largest population of Poles outside of Warsaw, and Pulaski was a proud hero.
Mount Pulaski in Logan County, founded in 1836, is named in his honor.
* WBEZ…
As early as the 1930s, Polish Americans in Chicago lobbied for public recognition of Casimir Pulaski. Their first major victory was a declaration, in 1933, that the former “Crawford Road” in Chicago would now be “Pulaski Road.” […]
In the 1970s, the Polish American Congress in Chicago took up the cause of a statewide Casimir Pulaski holiday. In 1977, they succeeded in getting a law passed designating the first Monday in March “Casimir Pulaski Day.” This was only a commemorative day, meaning Illinois schools, public offices and banks stayed open. […]
The lobbying efforts simmered for years, and gathered momentum again in 1985 when State Senator Leroy Lemke introduced a bill in the Illinois Senate to make Casimir Pulaski Day a full public holiday. It would give public schools and some government offices a day off, at the governor’s discretion. […]
Dominic Pacyga says the timing suggests the bill got traction due to the recent passage, in 1983, of a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., the slain civil rights activist. Lawmakers knew Martin Luther King Day would go into effect the next year, in 1986. Pacyga says the “white ethnic” community, including Poles, Jews, Italians, Greeks, Irish, wanted something similar. “There was a feeling the white ethnic community should also have a day, and in Illinois, it made sense to make it Pulaski Day, because the Polish community is so large in Chicago.”
Also, Jim Thompson was up for reelection in 1986, and this was seen back then as an effort to capture the white etnik “Reagan Democrats” vote. The Democrats may have passed the bill, but, as we say around here, governors own.
The holiday was made optional for schools in the 1990s and even CPS stays open now.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 11:41 am
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulaski_County,_Illinois
Some areas of Illinois exist South of I-80
Comment by Illinois Basement Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 11:54 am
I worked for the Board of Ed in the early 90s. That’s when I learned about Pulaski Day. I spent it calling everyone I knew who was working to taunt them about me getting the day off.
Comment by Cheryl44 Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 11:55 am
===There was a feeling the white ethnic community should also have a day,===
What a sad feeling that was, sadder still that Thompson and others went along with it. Glad it’s hardly observed anymore these days.
Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 11:56 am
Clinton County’s own City of Breese posted on their face book page, “Who was Casimir Pulaski?” Do they really not know, or are the being sarcastic? Sometimes you can’t tell in Southern Illinois where anything remotely Chicago is bad.
Comment by Highland Il Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 11:59 am
I feel that in all this hoopla about Pulaski, people don’t appreciate Tadeusz Kościuszko enough. He deserves to be better known.
I feel the same about Beaumarchais. He did as much to help the fledgling republic as the Marquis De Lafayette; but he is hardly known as that; let alone celebrated. All we know about him is the Figaro Trilogy of plays.
Comment by indianbadger1 Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:05 pm
Oh don’t worry about that Illinois Basement, we are consistently reminded…
Comment by ShyBoy Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:06 pm
When my kids were in elementary school they got the day off. They made up a song to celebrate it. It was to the tune of Frosty the Snowman.
Kas-mir Pul-la-ski
was a very …….
( I can’t remember any more)
But it was cute and silly
Maybe one of our
esteemed lyricists can take up the challenge
Comment by Honeybear Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:07 pm
Good time for a visit to Sawa’s Old Warsaw on Cermak in Broadview. Can’t beat the price, and that all-you-can-eat smorgasboard really hits the spot on freezing days like this.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:09 pm
and you can’t even get a good pierogi in Springfield.
Comment by proudstatetrooper Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:10 pm
==Sawa’s Old Warsaw on Cermak in Broadview. Can’t beat the price==
A good deal if your kids are below 3. If not, they better not be picky eaters.
Go for the ambiance: 1930s art deco pink and the best neon signs around.
Comment by City Zen Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:25 pm
Pulaski on Monday, Pączki on Tuesday. What a week to be Polish.
Comment by GV Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:26 pm
Always wondered how and why Casimir Pulaski got more play than Tadeusz Kościuszko? The latter had a much more dramatic and eventful life and survived the American Revolution. He did return to Europe after the USA was founded.
Comment by Practical Politics Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:39 pm
=== There was a feeling the white ethnic community should also have a day ===
Actually, wasn’t there a feeling that Martin Luther King Jr should not have a day among many?
Context: Harold Washington, Ed Burke and the Council Wars. Elevating Pulaski was a way of getting the last word in…a trump card so-to-speak.
Because, as everybody knows, we already had Columbus Day. So, “they” could have “their day,” as long as “We” still have more.
Comment by Juvenal Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:48 pm
Have relatives named Pulaski, a great uncle, Ed Pulaski. After the Idaho wild fires of 1910, he invented the forest fire fighting tool called a Pulaski. My grandmother did her genealogy in the late 50’s, and traced the family tree to the polish nobility of the Pulaski family. She was never able to make the direct connection to Casmir.
Comment by Huh? Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:48 pm
Springfield School District 186 still takes Casimir Pulaski Day off.
Comment by Leatherneck Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:54 pm
== Always wondered how and why Casimir Pulaski got more play than Tadeusz Kościuszko? The latter had a much more dramatic and eventful life and survived the American Revolution. He did return to Europe after the USA was founded. ==
Pulaski died from wounds suffered leading a cavalry charge in Georgia in 1779 at age 34. Thus he’s a war hero at fell in battle.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:56 pm
Opps… 12:56 was me
Comment by James Knell Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 12:58 pm
===There was a feeling the white ethnic community should also have a day,===
“What a sad feeling that was, sadder still that Thompson and others went along with it. Glad it’s hardly observed anymore these days.”
Don’t be sad. “In his will, Kościuszko left his American estate to be sold to buy the freedom of black slaves, including Jefferson’s own, and to educate them for independent life and work.” - wikipedia
While I don’t know about Pulaski’s personal views on race. He didn’t live long enough to see the French and Haitian Revolutions. However, the movement he was part of was to carry the banner “For your freedom and ours” across Europe and the Americas. No French revolution, no Haitian revolution.
I have a feeling Pulaski and MLK would have been friends & allies. Imagine them debating “the age of revolution” vs. Gandhian non-violence.
Comment by James Knell Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 1:22 pm
Lets have an Audie Murphy day so State employees can receive another day off with pay.
Comment by Hickory Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 1:54 pm
How about an Audie Murphy Day when all Purple Heart recipients must be given a paid day off. Their employers can take a tax credit.
Comment by James Knell Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 2:11 pm
James, I meant sad as in I am sad that Chicagoans apparently couldn’t embrace MLK Day by itself and chose to make up a new holiday instead. I didn’t mean to diminish Casimir Pulaski’s sacrifice, but forgive me if I don’t think it’s worthy of a paid day off for Chicago employees. Pulaski and MLK are both American heros, and all Americans should be grateful for both of these men. But in my opinion, only one of them deserves a federal holiday.
Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 2:22 pm
Huh? @ 12:48 — I was just about to post about Ed Pulaski, your great uncle, his invention, and the Great Fires of 1910. From what I know, Ed Pulaski was a heckuva a man, saving the lives of his fire crew by leading them to an abandoned mine for shelter and holding them there at gunpoint until the fire burned through. His men found him passed out at the mine opening and when one of them said “Looks like the old man’s dead,” Pulaski stirred and said “Like he** he is.” The Pulaski is still the standard front line tool for fighting wildfire.
Comment by Flapdoodle Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 2:35 pm
CPS STAYS OPEN??? Come on then. No schools should be closed today.
Comment by I Miss Bentohs Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 3:18 pm
I grew-up near Montrose and Pulaski, and later lived near Kosciuszko Park. Lots of great Polish places around! Though my mother always confused me when she told me to take the Crawford Avenue bus…
Comment by Proud Sucker Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 4:47 pm
Flap - the mine where Ed Pulaski saved his crew is listed on the National Register of Historical Places. There is a pulaski tool reputed to have been owned by him in the Windsor Mining District Museum.
Part of the familial urban legend is that Ed Pulaski’s wife didn’t know that he chewed tobacco until after the fire. It was then that she noticed brown tobacco stains at the corners of his mouth.
There is a PBS American Experience show titled “Big Burn” that tells the story of the early US Forest Service, Ed Pulaski and the 1910 Idaho wildfires.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/burn/
Comment by Huh? Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 7:09 pm
You Can get pirogies in Springfield; Arlington’s serves some with kielbasa on the side, though I wasn’t impressed. The GFS store sells potato-filled pirogies in huge bags. Not as good as Kasia’s, but they’re serviceable.
They also have great stuffed cabbage rolls at the GFS that are somehow exact duplicates of my mom’s home cooking. Highly recommended.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Mar 4, 19 @ 8:02 pm