(The national perspective is excerpted from Out of Many, One - A History of the Immigration and Refugee Services of America * Network, 1998, IRSA, by Margi Dunlap and Nicholas Montalto)

To promote civic unity and intergroup understanding, agencies began hosting cultural fairs. The gatherings gave members of nationality groups an opportunity to share something of their identity and cultural pride: where they came from, what they ate, what they wore, their music and dance, and who they had been before coming to America. And despite the ongoing national debate about immigration and its impact, neighbors and friends and local officials and the press were ready to come and see.

In 1920, in St. Louis, Missouri, the first of the network's "Festival of Nations" events was held. It was called the International May Festival, later changed to International Folkfest and finally in 2001 back to the original Festival of Nations. The great Minnesota Festival of Nations, the largest in the country, was started by the International Institute of Minnesota in 1932 and grew by 1943 into a festival that attracted 31,000 visitors.

The International Institute in Milwaukee began a Holiday Folk Fair in 1943 to demonstrate that people of different ethnic backgrounds, religions, and political views could work together in harmony. The donated labor of volunteers made the fairs possible. As they grew, the planning challenge and its joyful resolution proved this premise.

The Nationalities Service Center in Philadelphia started the Philadelphia Folk Fair in 1956 as an effort to promote healing after the divisiveness of the war years. It was the predecessor to hundreds of current citywide and neighborhood events that celebrate diversity. By the early 1960s, the fair in Philadelphia was expanded to three days and moved to the civic center.

The growth of successful ethnic festivals and fairs throughout the USCRI network during the 1930s and 1940s showed that despite a diminished flow of new immigrants, the International Institutes' mission to help newcomers to build new lives in the United States continued and grew. Creating opportunities to celebrate and share one's cultural identity helped to create a new American identity. And the host communities joined in the celebrations and were enriched by them as well.

* IRSA changes its name to US Committee for Refugees & Immigrants (USCRI) in 2004