Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs
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Who?
American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.
Significance?
He ran as the Socialist Party's candidate for the presidency in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920, the last time from a prison cell. Debs was noted for his oratory, and his speech denouncing American participation in World War I led to his second arrest in 1918. He was convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 and sentenced to a term of 10 years.
What?
Through his presidential candidacies, as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States
