Category: Debs Award

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2023 Debs Award Honoring Lynne Fox, Workers United

Long-time labor leader Lynne Fox, international president of Workers United since 2016, will receive the Debs Award for her lifetime commitment to labor, especially her work organizing Starbucks workers. The award will be presented at the 2023 Debs Banquet to be held October 28, 2023, at the Terre Haute Convention Center. The banquet will top off a day of activities centered on Debs and his work. In accepting the award, Fox said, “Honoring the legacy of Eugene V. Debs and keeping alive his spirit of humanitarianism and social criticism is an honor.  When Workers United embarked on helping the Starbucks Workers achieve their dream of being able to have a voice in their workplaces, we did it because it was the right thing to do and because they needed help to be heard.  It is an amazing privilege to be involved in this historic campaign as it’s happening and taking on responsibility for this story, as it has evolved universally.

Just as Eugene Debs founded the American Railway Union, which was one of the nation’s first industrial unions, in an attempt to affect an ‘emancipation of the working class,’ so too are mass numbers of workers asking for a voice on the job.  On behalf of the thousands of workers who have already spoken up, and for the thousands who have yet to speak; we are honored to accept the Debs award.” 

Events will kick off with an open house at the Debs House Museum featuring guided tours by museum director Allison Duerk. As traditional, a graveside remembrance will be held at noon in Highland Lawn Cemetery at Gene and Kate’s grave. Those wishing to stay after can accompany researchers John and Micki Morahn for a tour of other Debs family graves. 

At 2pm, the new film Brewing Change: The Fight for a Starbucks Union will be screened at Cunningham Memorial Library at Indiana State University, followed by a discussion led by Lynne Fox. ISU Special Collections, which hosts the Debs Collection, will be open after the movie featuring items related to Debs. 

The banquet will be held Saturday evening, with social hour at 6 and dinner at 7. Tickets will be available for online purchase soon. We hope you can join us! 

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(2022) Honoring the A. Philip Randolph Institute

The Eugene V. Debs Foundation each year honors a person or organization that demonstrates a long experience in the fields of labor, education, or public service. This year’s Eugene V. Debs Award will be presented to the A. Philip Randolph Institute. Founded in 1965 by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, the AFL-CIO’s first constituent organization continues the important work in trade unionism and social justice begun by those two legends. Randolph and Rustin forged an alliance between the civil rights and labor movements, recognizing that working people of all races and creeds share the same goals: political and social freedom, and economic justice.

In 1967, A. Philip Randolph was the third recipient of the Debs award. He was nominated by Norman Thomas (winner of the second award) who wrote to the Debs Foundation, “we would honor ourselves” by honoring Randolph. According to Thomas, “He has rendered a very great service to labor, a service transcending the boundaries of the Sleeping Car Porters,” and has become “a genuine elder statesman in the struggle for civil rights.” The institute bearing his name continues this great work.

The 1967 award was presented on September 23, with Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall addressing the banquet in honor of Randolph. In his speech, Udall called A. Philip Randolph “the unofficial conscience of the labor movement,” and compared Randolph and Debs pointing out many similarities. Udall noted both men were “self-educated” and “dedicated and skillful labor organizers,” who “abhorred violence” and “sought to educate their fellow workers.” Importantly, “both men extended their vision beyond the narrow confines of trade unionism to work for the broad social goals that would create a better America” and “both men believed in achieving these goals through the democratic process.”

The banquet to honor Randolph was attended by many prominent politicians, including Indiana Senator Birch Bayh and Congressman John T. Myers. All international union presidents were invited and more than five attended, with many others sending representatives. In presenting the award on behalf of the Foundation, Patrick Gorman, President of the Debs Foundation and Secretary/Treasurer of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America spoke for the Foundation saying “Agitator of the highest order, man or courage and conviction and unswerving devotion to the cause of peace and human brotherhood, and for decades, unofficial conscience of American labor, we proudly present to you, as a worthy disciple of him whose memory we revere and whose honor we perpetuate, this 1967 Eugene V. Debs award in the field of labor and public service.”

As the trade union movement has seen tremendous growth and enthusiasm recently, it is vital that we continue to connect with the past. We must remember those who forged the path that brought us to this moment. Both the Debs Foundation and the A. Philip Randolph Institute are dedicated to preserving this important legacy. The Debs Foundation is honored once again, to honor the legacy of A. Philip Randolph and salute those who keep his flame alive.

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(2022) Live Reading: Debs and Randolph in Our Voices

Image text: Debs & Randolph in Our Voices A Live Reading Event Online and in Terre Haute, Indiana Saturday, June 18th, 2022 2:00-3:00 PM Eastern

Join us! On Saturday, June 18th, 2022, the Debs Foundation and Museum will recognize the Debs Day and present Debs and Randolph in Our Voices. This live reading event will take place from 2:00-3:00 PM Eastern Time.

Together, we will read passages from both Eugene V. Debs and A. Philip Randolph, reflecting on how their words still resonate today. In recognition of the 2022 Debs Award honoree, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, we invite you to contemplate the words and legacies of two leaders who connected the struggles for racial and economic justice.

This is our first hybrid event: join us in-person at the Terre Haute Labor Temple or virtually via Zoom.

About Zoom Attendance

Register here to participate via Zoom by June 17th. Registrants have the option of participating in the live reading, or watching the event without reading. Please indicate whether you would like to be a reader on your registration form.

About In-Person Attendance

Those wishing to participate as in-person readers should register at this link by Friday, June 17th. Please join us at the Labor Temple at 31 South 13th Street in Terre Haute, Indiana. Free parking is available on-site.

A program recording will be shared after the event. Please contact museum@debsfoundation.org with any questions.

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(2021) Honoring the Innocence Project

Executive Director Christina Swarns will accept the Eugene V. Debs Award on behalf of the Innocence Project

The Innocence Project will receive the Eugene V. Debs Award on October 23, 2021 at 3:00 pm Eastern Time. Our first-ever virtual Award ceremonies will stream on this page as well as Facebook and Youtube. Christina Swarns, Executive Director of the Innocence Project, will accept the Award and offer remarks. Acclaimed musician and activist Bucky Halker will provide musical selections, a traditional element of the Debs Award ceremonies.

The Debs Foundation celebrates the Innocence Project’s extraordinary efforts which have contributed to the exoneration of more than 230 innocent people through DNA testing and by other means. In addition to freeing the innocent, the Innocence Project works continually to address the key causes of wrongful convictions and to prevent future injustices through the courts, the legal system and legislatures throughout the country. Its social work department also provides support to exonerees as they rebuild their lives post-release.

The connections between the Debs Foundation and the Innocence Project are profound. Gene Debs had deep personal experiences during his incarceration. He was imprisoned first in Woodstock, Illinois, for leading the Pullman Strike of 1894 and again decades later in the Atlanta Federal Prison for speaking out against the role of the U.S. in the First World War, sentences many would say were unjust. While in the Atlanta Prison, he ran for President of the United States on the Socialist Party ticket and received nearly a million votes. After Debs’ death, his family published Walls and Bars, a collection of essays exposing the conditions and injustices of the U.S. penal system of a hundred years ago. Debs was keenly sympathetic to the plight of those oppressed by the injustices of incarceration. The Innocence Project carries forward the humanism and compassion of Debs as an essential component in today’s struggle to ensure justice for all. More information about its work is available on its excellent website, innocenceproject.org.

Please contact us by emailing info@debsfoundation.org with any inquiries.