[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER 1: Eugene Debs, the son of immigrants, began working on the railroad in Terre Haute, Indiana just after the end of the Civil War. He was 14 years old.

SPEAKER 2: He believed in the promise of American life. He believed that people could improve themselves. And that was what was the promise of the American Democratic creed.

SPEAKER 1: When the Pullman Company drastically cut wages in 1894, Eugene Debs led the American Railway Union in a nationwide strike that brought railroads to a standstill. He was arrested and sent to jail. He emerged to lead a movement.

SPEAKER 3: The Pullman Strike seemed to be a turning point. I think he looked at that and said that the two-party system was working against working people. And that that wouldn't be the effective avenue for change.

SPEAKER 1: Debs ran as the socialist party candidate for president five times.

SPEAKER 4: He's outside the mainstream. He doesn't accept the conventional wisdom. And he says, wait a minute, there's a better way. There's a different way.

SPEAKER 1: He delivered a speech in 1918 against American involvement in World War I and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act. He ran for president for the final time from his prison cell. He received almost a million votes.

SPEAKER 5: He changes with the times, adopting a progressive, forward-thinking attitude knowing that as the times change, that attitude has to change. He grows with time.

[MUSIC PLAYING]