Category: Foundation

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Debs in Our Voices: Walls & Bars

Join us!

On June 20th, the Debs Foundation will recognize Debs Day and present Debs in Our Voices: Walls & Bars. This event will take place from 12-2 pm EDT via Facebook Live on our page, facebook.com/EugeneVDebsFoundation.

Together, we will read selections from Walls & Bars and reflect on how Debs’ words speak to us today.

About Walls & Bars

Exactly 100 years ago, Eugene V. Debs was serving a ten-year prison sentence in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. His crime? Speaking out against the First World War in his famous Canton Speech of 1918. Undeterred, Debs led his fifth and final presidential campaign from his prison cell, earning nearly a million votes for the Socialist ticket in November of 1920.

Prison life profoundly affected Debs. As he experienced inhumane prison conditions, Debs also witnessed the common humanity of his fellow prisoners. He described these experiences in a series of articles and essays. In 1927, his brother Theodore published these writings in the volume Walls & Bars shortly after Eugene Debs’ death. Beyond simply describing prison life and conditions, Debs created a blueprint for solving the problems of incarceration by addressing what he saw as the root of crime: unmet social and economic needs. Walls & Bars connects crime and prisons to the economic conditions created by capitalism, forging a path to abolishing prisons as we know them by transforming our economic system.

How can I get involved?

We need readers to bring Debs’ words to life! If you’re interested in participating in Debs in Our Voices as a live reader, please complete this form.

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Watch The Revolutionist with Senator Bernie Sanders

Update 6/22/2020: The screening has been rescheduled for TONIGHT, June 22nd at 7:30 pm Eastern. Tune in with us at live.berniesanders.com!

Update 6/5/2020: This event has been postponed indefinitely; watch this page and the official Facebook event page for further announcements.

Update 5/29/2020: Senator Sanders’ team has rescheduled this livestream event to Friday, June 5th at 8 pm in order to keep the attention on the killing of George Floyd and the need for this country to end police violence. We wholeheartedly support this decision and look forward to the event next week.

Tune in! Senator Sanders will highlight his political inspiration by a hosting watch party for WFYI’s 2019 documentary The Revolutionist: Eugene V. Debs. A panel discussion will follow featuring Senator Sanders, actor and Revolutionist narrator Danny Glover, journalist John Nichols, and more! The film starts at 8 pm EDT at this link.

Alternately loved and reviled, Eugene Victor Debs was a passionate labor leader, a progressive political figure, and a formidable speaker in a time of great change in the United States. WFYI’s new documentary, The Revolutionist: Eugene V. Debs, tells the story of this Hoosier’s life. Born in Terre Haute in 1855, Eugene Debs emerged as a divisive figure when he led the nationwide Pullman Strike in 1894. Seeking an alternative way for workers to gain power, he helped establish the Socialist Party in the United States and ran as its candidate for president five times. His campaign across the country drew massive crowds, and his oratory tested the limits of the First Amendment. When he spoke out against America’s involvement in World War I, the Supreme Court upheld a guilty verdict that sentenced him to ten years in prison for violating the Espionage Act. From his cell, he ran for president for the final time, garnering nearly a million votes…and sparking a national conversation about the right to free speech.

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Call for Conference Papers

UPDATE: Due to the ongoing issues of the COVID19 pandemic the organizers have decided to reschedule this conference from its original November 2020 date to April 9-10, 2021.

“While There Is A Soul In Prison, I Am Not Free”

The History of Solidarity in Social and Economic Justice

Sponsored by the Eugene V. Debs Foundation, the Cunningham Memorial Library, and the Department of History at Indiana State University
Keynote Address: Peter Cole, PhD., Professor of History at Western Illinois University
Date: November 13-14, 2020
Place: Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana

In 1918, the American labor organizer and socialist leader Eugene Victor Debs was sentenced to ten years in prison for his anti-war activities opposing America’s involvement in World War One. In his closing defense, Debs said, “Your honor… I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” After being remanded to prison, Debs then went on to run in the 1920 presidential campaign, garnering nearly a million votes.

To honor the hundredth anniversary of the court decision, the 1920 election, and Debs’ commitment to economic and social justice, the Eugene V. Debs Foundation, the Cunningham Memorial Library, and the Department of History at Indiana State University are calling for papers as part of a daylong conference in Terre Haute, Indiana on November 14, 2020.

The conference’s theme is broadly the history of “solidarity in social and economic justice,” and the organizers are specifically interested in the fields of labor and social movement history. However, to give specific focus to prison abolitionism and mass incarceration, special attention will be given to scholars and activists working in the prison abolitionist movement. Themes in terms of geographic location and time are being left purposefully open to encourage a wide range of topics in world history throughout the long struggle of working class social movements.

Contact Info: 

To submit a paper or panel proposal, email a 200-300 word abstract with a CV by May 15, 2020 to all of the organizers at—

Wesley Bishop, wbishop@marian.edu

Nancy Gabin, ngabin@purdue.edu

Micki Morahn, michelle.morahn@debsfoundation.org  

Lisa Phillips, lisa.phillips@indstate.edu

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Debs Foundation to Host 2nd Annual Debs Day

June 15th, 10:00 am — 5:00 pm

Eugene V. Debs Museum, 451 North 8th Street

Contact: Allison Duerk, Debs Museum Director (812) 232-2163 or allison.duerk@debsfoundation.org

“Manifestly the spirit of ‘76 still survives. The fires of liberty and noble aspirations are not yet extinguished.”   — Eugene V. Debs, “Liberty” (1895)

The Eugene V. Debs Foundation will commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Pullman Strike with a day of special programming at the Debs Museum located at 451 North 8th Street in Terre Haute. All events are free and open to the public.

125 years ago this summer, a quarter of a million rebel railroaders tied up the nation’s rail lines and halted trains from Detroit to the West Coast. Why? Striking in sympathy, they protested inhumane working and living conditions in George Pullman’s company town on Chicago’s south side. Pullman’s famous sleeper cars transformed rail travel, but workers who built them often struggled to make ends meet. At the head of the 1894 Pullman Strike was Terre Haute’s own Eugene V. Debs, president of the American Railway Union. The work stoppage eventually led to martial law in Chicago, deadly conflict between troops and strikers, and Debs’ jailing in 1895. The Pullman Strike also paved the way for labor law reforms, future industrial unions, and Debs’ revolutionary politics.

10:00 am – Walking Tour: Gene and Kate’s Neighborhood

Debs Foundation Secretary Michelle K. Morahn and research partner John S. Morahn will present a walking tour of the block surrounding the 1890 Debs Home. Get to know the Debs’ neighbors in this once-fashionable residential area of Terre Haute. Tour departs from the Debs Museum. Advance registration required  — call (812) 232-2163 or register here.

12:00 pm – Author Talk and Book Signing with Jack Kelly

Visiting author Jack Kelly will discuss and sign copies of his recent book The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, & the Greatest Labor Uprising in America. Debs Foundation President Noel Beasley calls Kelly’s work on the Pullman Strike “an excellent depiction of a nation in crisis” and “a timely reflection of the remarkably parallel characteristics and contradictions of that time and our own.” Copies of The Edge of Anarchy will be available for purchase in the Debs Museum gift shop for $25.

1:00 pm – Debs in Our Voices: “Liberty”

All are invited to join in a participatory reading of “Liberty,” the speech that Debs delivered to a crowd of 100,000 supporters in Chicago following his release from Woodstock Jail after the Pullman Strike. Readers will share short passages of the speech from the front porch of the Debs Home. A guided tour of the Museum will follow. This presentation of “Liberty” continues the Foundation’s new tradition of bringing Debs’ words to life in our own voices. The first annual Debs Day, designated by Mayor Duke Bennett on June 16, 2018, commemorated the 100th anniversary of Debs’ anti-war “Canton Speech” that resulted in his infamous 10-year prison sentence and landmark free speech case.

The Eugene V. Debs Foundation promotes the work and legacy of Eugene V. Debs through education, research and community outreach in addition to operating the Debs Museum. The Foundation keeps alive the spirit of progressivism, humanitarianism, and social criticism epitomized by Debs.

 

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Collective Lives/Collective Struggles: The Charter Members of the Debs Foundation

Thanks to many hours of research by Board member Tim Kelley, we now have a history of the founding members of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation, entitled “Collective Lives/Collective Struggles”. This labor of love chronicles not only the beginnings of the Foundation but details about the lives of its charter members.

Many thanks to Tim Kelley and all those who supported his research. Without this effort, much of this information would be lost in the sands of time.

The entire history is available as PDF document for download! Please share and enjoy!

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Debs/Pullman Festival in Woodstock, IL – November 2nd and 3rd

Woodstock Celebrates, Inc. is hosting a Eugene V. Debs/George Pullman festival in Woodstock on Saturday and Sunday, 2 and 3 November.  All events will be free to the public, who would be encouraged to donate for the specific purpose of renovating Old McHenry County Jail. On Saturday morning at 10, the library will show “The Gilded Age,” a recent documentary about the 1880-1896 social-industrial crisis.  On Sunday morning at noon, Steve Aavang will guide a walking tour of Woodstock sites associated with Debs and his jailer/friend, Sheriff George Eckert.  Speakers on Debs and Pullman will present at Stage Left from 2 to 5 PM on both days, and the bookstore will host a signing by Ernest Freeberg of his book on Debs in 1919. Also on both Saturday and Sunday, the Old Court House will exhibit Debs Foundation material from 11 AM to 5 PM, and the library will showcase Pullman material from the Illinois Railway Museum from 1 PM to closing.  All day on both days, Ethereal Confections will offer to patrons cocktails popular in the 1890s through 1919.

Event updates will be posted on https://www.facebook.com/WoodstockCelebratesInc/.

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Article on Morahns’ Debs Research by Tribune Star’s Mark Bennett

Our own Micki and John Morahn’s Debs research was covered in a recent issue of the Terre Haute Tribune Star:

“Morahn retold that story and others last month, building a case for a more realistic picture of Kate, wife of the Terre Haute-born activist whose exploits earned him a spot on Life Magazine’s list of the 20th Century’s Most Influential Americans nearly 75 years after his death. Morahn saw the lack of an in-depth study of Mrs. Debs as a void in the otherwise voluminous history of Mr. Debs. So, four years ago, Morahn and her husband, John, began compiling biographical information about Kate.”

Read more on the Tribune-Star Website

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Debs in Our Voices: a Community Reading

Mayor Proclaims June 16 “Debs Day” in Terre Haute

June 16, 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of Eugene V. Debs’ most famous speech in Canton, Ohio and the Debs Foundation of Terre Haute is commemorating the date by offering the public an opportunity to read the speech in their own voices from the porch of the Debs Home and Museum at 451 North 8th Street, Terre Haute. Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett has declared the day “Eugene V. Debs Day” in the city.

Events will begin at 10 am with tours of the Debs home and a Labor History Tour of Terre Haute marking significant places in Terre Haute and Debs history which made the city a mecca for working class people and their cause. Pre-registration for the Labor tour can be found here. The tour will conclude at the Debs grave site in Highland Lawn cemetery in Terre Haute with a short memorial service at 11:30 am.

The 10am tour is now full, but in response to popular demand, a second tour has been scheduled from 1pm until 3pm. Registration is through the form above.

From noon until 4, visitors to the home will be invited to read portions of Debs’ Canton speech from the porch and to gather in the back yard to share Debs stories and inspiration. All the events are free and open to the public.

Eugene V. Debs was born and raised in Terre Haute and served as City Clerk, as well as Representative to the Indiana Legislature. He helped establish the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, a national union based in Terre Haute and was a founder of the American Railway Union, which led to a 6-month sentence for his leadership of the Pullman Strike in 1894. He embraced the ideals of Socialism and helped found The American Socialist Party and was the party’s Presidential Candidate five times, the last time running from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary where he was serving a 10 year sentence for his Canton speech. He received almost a million votes in 1920 while incarcerated.

Although not all his neighbors agreed with his politics, the town embraced its most famous son. When he was released from prison, over 25,000 of his friends and neighbors greeted his return to Terre Haute. He was a friend to all, and his kindness was universally admired.

Come join the Eugene V. Debs Foundation in commemorating Debs and the right to free speech on June 16, 2018.