The Educational Council of UCCA was founded in 1953 to centralize and coordinate the activities of dozens of Saturday School Programs of Ukrainian Studies which had already existed in the United States since the start of the 20th century.

The first convention of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA) in 1894, which attracted 17 delegates from among the nearly 10,000 "Rusyn-Ukrainian" Greek Catholic immigrants in Eastern Pennsylvania, is often referred to as a seminal formative event.

Delegates travelled from the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and California.

[14] At the time of the first Congress, the Soviet Union was still months away from being expelled from the League of Nations for colluding with Hitler and invading Finland, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt had yet to order a massive modernization of the United States Navy.

[15] The work of hundreds of organizers preceded the Washington gathering, and a widely published editorial was released to coincide with the meeting, entitled, "Ukrainians Prepare For Independence.

[20] With Joseph Stalin now a wartime ally of the United States, following the Nazi invasion of Soviet-occupied Ukraine, Communists and Russophiles, encouraged by their Soviet leaders and agencies, sought to vilify American Ukrainians in America wherever they could.

Without any U.S. government officials attending, 235 delegates voted on an ambitious program of activity to support both the United States and Ukraine's continuing struggle for independence.

[21] At the close of the war, a delegation of Ukrainian-American representatives which had been elected at the second Congress in 1944, flew to San Francisco to advocate on behalf of a free Ukraine during the formation of the United Nations, convening at the Conference on International Organization in May 1945.

[14] Whereas earlier waves of Ukrainian immigration fled from poverty and arrived mostly illiterate, the political refugees driven out of their country by the recent war and persecution had on average a decade of education, while many were college graduates and professionals.

Representatives of this newest wave of immigrants were among the 308 delegates and invited guests who participated at the "Fourth Congress of Americans of Ukrainian Descent" (Четвертий Конґрес Американських Українців), which took place from November 5–6, 1949, again at the Almas Temple in Washington, D.C.

[26] Senator H. Alexander Smith (R-NJ) addressed the delegates, representing some 472 different organizations,[27] that it was the great privilege and responsibility of the United States to lead and assist in Ukraine's efforts to "throw off the shackles of imperialism," and hailed the "grim determination of courageous individuals to secure their freedom rather than yield to the tempting allurements of fascist-nazism or communist-marxism.

"[28] Also addressing the delegates, was Under Secretary of State Herbert A. Fierst, Editor of Svoboda Luka Myshuha, founding president of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee, the Rev.

The "Fifth Congress of Americans of Ukrainian Descent" (П'ятий Конґрес Американських Українців) was held on July 4–6, 1952, at the Hotel Statler in New York City.

Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Alan Goodrich Kirk, former United States Commissioner of Displaced Persons and staff member of the newly-formed United States National Security Council, Edward O'Connor, the President of the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile, Stepan Vytvytskyi, Mykola Lebed of the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council, Legislative Assistant to President Truman, Joseph Feeney, Deputy Mayor of New York City Charles Horowitz, and U.S. Army Lieutenant General and former director of the Manhattan Project, Leslie Groves.

The "Sixth Congress of Americans of Ukrainian Descent" (Шостий Конґрес Американських Українців) took place in the Hotel Commodore in New York City, from the May 28 to 30, 1955.

Guests and speakers included the then-governor of New York and former United States Secretary of Commerce, W. Averell Harriman, and the President of the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile, Stepan Vytvytskyi.

The "Seventh Congress of Americans of Ukrainian Descent" (Сьомий Конґрес Американських Українців) gathered on February 21–23, 1959, at the Hotel Statler Hilton, in Washington, D.C. Voting participants included 292 delegates.

Guests and speakers included representatives from the Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Belarusan, Czech, Slovak and Caucuses diaspora communities in America, U.S.

Vice-president Richard Nixon and then-acting Secretary of State and former Governor of Massachusetts Christian Herter sent greetings to the delegates which were read aloud from the podium.

The "Eighth Congress of Americans of Ukrainian Descent" (Восьмий Конґрес Американських Українців) gathered on October 12–14, 1962, at the Hotel Commodore, in New York City.

The Congress was conducted under an oversized banner with the slogan "Towards the Liberation and Emancipation of the Captive Nations," and portraits of Taras Shevchenko and Abraham Lincoln were displayed behind the dais, linking the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation with UCCA's then-active drive to complete the Taras Shevchenko Memorial in Washington, D.C. President John F. Kennedy dispatched a telegram greeting to the delegates which was delivered at the opening session.

Senator Jacob Javits (R-NY), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Carl Rowan, the Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Tsiang Tingfu, Cuban scholar Herminio Portell Vilá, Director of the International Affairs Department for the Anti-Defamation League Joseph L. Lichten, and President of the Conference of Americans of Central and Eastern European Descent (CACEED) the Rev.

Future UCCA President Ihnat Bilynsky delivered a special statement commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

Following the recent public revelation by Bohdan Stashynsky that he had murdered both Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera in the late 1950s at the direction of the KGB, a resolution was unanimously adopted from the floor of the convention condemning the assassinations and demanding that "the government of the USSR be brought before a court of international justice as the principal culprit in these genocidal killings."

Following the opening plenary, a special "Lincoln Luncheon" highlighted the first day of the convention, at which the inaugural Shevchenko Freedom Awards were bestowed by UCCA.

At the formal congressional banquet, Governor of New York and future Vice President of the United States Nelson Rockefeller gave the keynote address.

Guests and speakers included Member of Ukraine's Parliament and chair of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations Slava Stetsko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Anatoliy Zlenko, former Congressman and United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs Ed Derwinski, Ukrainian World Congress Board Member Oleh Romanyshyn, U.S. Federal Appeals Judge Bohdan A. Futey, and Archbishop Vsevolod Majdansky of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.

At the formal congressional banquet, a written statement from Sen. Frank Lautenberg was read to the attendees, followed by the announcement of the recipients of the 1996 Shevchenko Freedom Awards: United States ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright accepted on behalf of President Bill Clinton, Consul General of Ukraine in New York Viktor Kryzhanivsky accepted on behalf of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Hennadiy Udovenko, and the Chair of the House Committee on International Relations, Congressman Benjamin Gilman.

Guests included Consul General of Ukraine in Chicago, Borys Basylevsky, and Press Secretary of Narodnyi Rukh, Dmytro Ponomarchuk.

At the banquet, the recipients of the 2000 Shevchenko Freedom Awards were announced as well for their many years of dedicated service to UCCA and the Ukrainian American community: Atena Pashko (in honor of her late husband Viacheslav Chornovil), Natalka Shukhevych (wife of the late Ukrainian General Roman Shukhevych), Evhen Ivashkiv, Wolodymyr Stojko, Mychailo Spontak, Lev Futala, Mychailo Kowalczyn, Ivan Teluk, Myroslaw Charkewych, Evhen Fedorenko and Ivan Burtyk.