NEWS from THE POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS
DOWNSTATE NEW YORK DIVISION
177 Kent St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11222 – (718) 349-9689
Photo by Polish American Congress
Elmhurst, N.Y. (4/29) .. “It was a Polish General, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who came here and served under George Washington to fight in America’s War of Independence,” Frank Milewski (center) told the audience at the Annual Awards Dinner of the United for Progress Democratic Club in New York City’s Queens County.
Shown with him are officials of the club (left to right): Henry McCoy, 33rd A.D. district leader; Lemelle Sherod, president of United for Progress and June Bunch 33rd A.D. district co-leader. At far right is Chet Szarejko, vice president of the N.Y. Polish American Congress.
As president of the Downstate N.Y. Division of the Polish American Congress, Milewski thanked the members of the club for their award and commended them as “people of faith who are participating in the political process at a time when Christians are not as respected as they once were.”
Also among the honorees was Bishop Charles Norris Sr., pastor of Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church of Jamaica, N.Y.
As New York’s African Americans observe Black History Month every February, the
Polish American Congress has been joining the celebrations to emphasize Gen. Kosciuszko’s special contribution to that history, according to Mr. Szarejko, who is also a member of the United for Progress Club.
Kosciuszko’s special contribution was his Last Will and Testament leaving all his property he accumulated while in America for the sole purpose of liberating African slaves and helping them share in the freedom Kosciuszko fought for in the American Revolution.
The will was written just before he returned to Poland in 1798, exactly 65 years before President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
For this reason, Poland’s Thaddeus Kosciuszko has begun to be acknowledged as
“America’s First Emancipator.”