Eugene V. (Eugene Victor) Debs

Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1855, Eugene V. Debs left school young and went to work on the railroad. He became active in union organizing, helped build the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and later led the American Railway Union, which won national attention during the 1894 Great Northern strike.

His role in the Pullman Strike and the jail sentence that followed became a turning point. Afterward, he embraced socialism, helped establish the Socialist Party of America, and ran for U.S. president five times between 1900 and 1920. He was widely known as a powerful public speaker and as a tireless advocate for working people.

Debs remained a major public figure even after being imprisoned for an antiwar speech during World War I. He received nearly a million votes in the 1920 presidential election while still in prison, a sign of how strongly his message resonated with supporters. He died in 1926, but his life still stands as a vivid chapter in the history of American labor and political dissent.