An Indiana native, Eugene V. Debs is best remembered as a fierce labor activist, a gifted orator, and for running for president five time – including once from a prison cell.
In 1918, Debs gave a speech in Canton, Ohio condemning World War I as a war of “conquest and plunder” and urging workers to resist conscription. President Wilson branded Debs a “traitor to his country” and on September 12th, 1918 he was found guilty of sedition.
Despite his incarceration, Debs not only received the nomination of the Socialist Party, but went on to receive a total 913,664 votes (3.4% of the popular vote). In 1921, President Harding commuted his sentence, and Debs died five years later at the age of 70.
Located in his hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana, the Debs’ home was built in 1890 – Eugene and his wife, Kate, lived in the home for the entirety of their lives. After Kate’s death in 1936, the home changed hands a few times, even serving as the home of a fraternity for a brief period. In 1962, a group of local admirers formed the Eugene V. Debs Foundation and purchased the home to turn it into a museum. The home was named a National Historic Landmark in 1966.