Tolerated But Never Accepted:

About the Book

In Tolerated but Never Accepted: Polish American Officials Of Michigan, Don Binkowski traces the long and tortuous history of the Polish peasant’s struggle to participate in America’s democracy and election of officials in Michigan and elsewhere in America. Successful in their efforts to establish a 1919 independent Poland, the second-generation Poles gradually focused on all political levels culminating in the election of three Michigan congressmen and other officials during the New Deal. Binkowski documented their successes and failures in Michigan’s and the nation’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches while Polonia supported the eventual independence of Poland from the communists.

About the Author

Born in Detroit‘s Polish ghetto, Don Binkowski was baptized at St. Albertus, Detroit‘s first Polish Roman Catholic Church. He started school at St. Ladislas in Hamtramck before moving to North Detroit. Binkowski worked for the Michigan attorney general, and later he was elected a delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention, representing Hamtramck and the east side of Detroit. Afterward, moving to Warren, Binkowski was elected to the council and then retired as a district judge in 1987, culminating a career of fourteen elections. Listed in Who’s Who in American Law, 2007, he authored three books. His Web page: www.binkowski.org.