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Czechs in Chicago

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Ethnic groups in Chicago

Chicago has a large Czech population (colloquially known as "Czechcagoans"). As of 2000, Chicago had the largest Czech population among US metropolitan areas, and Illinois had the second-largest Czech-American population after Texas. There are 72,058 residents of Czech heritage living in the greater Chicago area as of 2023.

History

The First Czechs came to Chicago in the 1850s and 1860s, shortly after the Habsburgs crushed the Czech Revolution of 1848 in the Crown Kingdom of Bohemia. Their Slovak counterparts would arrive in the city about 40 years later in the early 20th Century. They called their first settlement in the city, concentrated around Canal, Harrison, and Twelfth Streets, Praha (Prague), where they would establish several Czech institutions. After the Great Chicago Fire damaged much of Praha and Italians and Greeks began to move into the area, the Czech community then migrated further south into Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, which they named after Pilsen, Czechia. The first Czech Catholic Church, St. Wenceslaus, was founded at De Koven and Des Plaines streets in 1863. America's first daily Czech newspaper Svornost began publication in 1875. Also, common in many Czech-American communities was a Sokol (equivalent to a German Turnverein), or a gymnastics facility, which fostered fitness and community bonding, located at Canal and Taylor. Later, more upwardly mobile generations of Czech Americans migrated to Cicero and Berwyn, where many of them took up jobs at the Hawthorne Works Western Electric plant making America's telephones.

Tragedy struck Chicago's Czech American community in 1911, when five-year old Elsie Paroubek was kidnapped and murdered. As a result, the Czech American community mobilized massively to help in the searches for the girl and support her family, and gained much sympathy from the general American public.

In 1915, the SS Eastland Disaster on the Chicago River resulted in the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes, with 844 killed. Several hundred Czech-Americans were estimated to have been among the passengers who died when the ship, which was transporting a group of Hawthorne Works Western Electric workers and their families for an outing, capsized in the Chicago River.

In 1931, the Czech community celebrated when Anton Cermak was elected mayor of Chicago, thwarting incumbent William Thompson's attempt at a second term and thus defeating the Irish American political machine which up until then had dominated the city's political administration. Indeed, Cermak ushered in a new era of Chicago politics: every Chicago mayor since has been a member of the Democratic Party. Cermak was later killed by a bullet intended for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and today is buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery on Chicago's Northwest Side. Cermak lends his name to Cermak Road, which runs through several of the historically Czech / Bohemian neighborhoods on Chicago's Southwest Side.

Notable Czech Chicagoans

Institutions

  • Chicago Czech American Community Center

References

  1. "The Historical Czech Chicagoland". CCACC. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
  2. "Ameredia: Czech American Demographics". www.ameredia.com. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  3. "Explore Census Data". data.census.gov. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  4. Cutler, Irving (February 1, 2020). Chicago. p. 96.
  5. Myers, Quinn (July 29, 2021). "Ask Geoffrey: Cicero's Klas Restaurant". WTTW Chicago. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  6. "Start Big Search for Girl's Slayer: Bohemian Society Offers $500 Reward for Murderer of Elsie Paroubek". Chicago Tribune. May 10, 1911. p. 3. Retrieved June 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com. The search for Elsie Paroubek is one of the things that will be long remembered in Chicago. In behalf of the parents of this small child, the mayor of Chicago, women's clubs, civic societies, and members of the bench have each had an individual part.
  7. Magazine, Smithsonian; Stranahan, Susan Q. "The Eastland Disaster Killed More Passengers Than the Titanic and the Lusitania. Why Has It Been Forgotten?". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  8. Kytka (January 25, 2022). "SS Eastland Disaster Killed 100's of Czechs". Tres Bohemes. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  9. "Anton J. Cermak | Biography, Chicago Mayor, & Democratic Leader | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  10. ^ Hautzinger, Daniel (May 9, 2023). "The 150th Birthday of the Chicago Mayor Who Was Killed by a Bullet Meant for FDR". WTTW Chicago. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  11. Rechcigl, Miloslav Jr. (November 10, 2016). Encyclopedia of Bohemian and Czech-American Biography. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-5246-1990-9.
  12. Cook, Kevin (November 16, 2017). "University of Illinois Alumni". University of Illinois Alumni. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  13. "Halas' family hosts Ch. 11 Czech doc benefit Feb. 17". | Reel Chicago - At the intersection of Chicago Advertising, Entertainment, Media and Production. February 8, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  14. Biography.com Editors. "Ray Kroc". Biography. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  15. ray-kroc-164.php
  16. "CZECHS IN CHICAGO". Chicago Filmmakers. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  17. Fraňková, Ruth (March 17, 2015). "American actress Kim Novak arrives in Prague". Radio Prague. Retrieved October 12, 2024.
  18. "Gene Cernan: Always Shoot for the Moon Part I". Airport Journals. July 1, 2005. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  19. Swopes, Bryan (January 16, 2021). "Eugene Andrew Cernan (14 March 1934–16 January 2017)". This Day in Aviation. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  20. Eugene Cernan (1999). The last man on the moon. Internet Archive. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-19906-7.
  21. Lifka, Robert J. (June 9, 2015). "City of Prague to honor Judy Baar Topinka". Riverside Brookfield Landmark. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  22. "Judy Baar Topinka, a Symbol of the Czech Community in Chicago, has Died". www.mzv.cz. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  23. Phillips, Michael. "Milos Stehlik, longtime force and eloquent voice in Chicago and international film, dies at 70". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  24. Simon, Alissa (July 8, 2019). "Milos Stehlik, Founder of Facets Multimedia in Chicago, Dies at 70". Variety. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
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