Unknown Speaker  28:05  
There we go. Hello everyone. Welcome. I am Leslie Blankenship. I am a Ohio local history Alliance trustee at large. I am part of the education committee that organizes and plans this conference. I'm also a longtime volunteer since 1990 at the kilton house museum and garden, an 1850s House Museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio, which is also an active Underground Railroad site. This session is entitled solidarity and sanitiser Eugene Victor Debs, in the era of COVID. Again, please remember to place your questions in the q&a, and we will keep an eye on it, and ask our speaker, toward the end of the program. Yesterday, through the magic of zoom, we traveled to Connecticut to reimagine the transformation of the Eric Sloan Museum, and we joined John Captain John Brown on the plains of Kansas to hear how he fought to keep slavery, out of this out of the state. Today, we are traveling to Terre Haute, Indiana, were on the western edge of that red state, almost didn't golf by a university, there exists a unique House Museum in it beats the heart of socialism in America. since 19 8090, its occupants have been fighting for economic, social and political justice for working families in America. We are going to check in with a museum director, Alison Derek, Allison Dirk, to see how they have been coping with the pandemic, and this era of extreme political partisanship. So, Allison. Welcome. Today, and you can take it away.

Unknown Speaker  30:15  
Thank you, Leslie, I will set up my share my screen share very quickly here.

Unknown Speaker  30:22  
And we should be all

Unknown Speaker  30:23  
set. So, first of all, of course, again, thank you, Leslie. Carla and everyone here at all well AJ for the opportunity to share the story of Eugene Victor Debs, the winding road of how his home became a museum, and how the museum builds on depth his legacy today, I go back and forth over whether Debs has never been more relevant to our lives, or whether he never quit being relevant, but I would like us to start with a quick promotional video. The Deb's foundation in museum, and the last few years worked with Wi Fi public media Indianapolis to create a fantastic documentary on Eugene Debs called the revolutionist and why I put together this promo for the museum, as part of the documentaries promotion and I like to share this video clip.

Unknown Speaker  31:16  
My name is Alison dirt, and I am the director of the Eugene V Debs Museum, the bed and washed in our original pieces to the room, I didn't really know a lot about Debs and I snoozed a little bit in my high school history classes I'm not gonna lie, but coming to the Indiana State for college and kind of having my social awakening and realizing these problems of race and gender and inequality. A lot of them can have a common thread that ties them together and it sees economic justice issues. He was a social critic humanitarian progressive socialists so many different single words we could use to describe him, but he was a Terre Haute native born and raised in the city lived here his whole life called the city his home, and really dedicated his life to the redemption of the common people, regular folks like you and me. We are in his 1890 Terre Haute home that he and his wife Kate built after five years of marriage, he was a product of this time in place, but I'm less honestly concerned with all the things and the stuff in the house as much as how we can connect those things to dubs ideas and really understood what he what he stood for as a person. And we're looking at books here that represent what Gene was reading, and then what he might read in more recent decades, just today, I had three groups of English students at Indiana State, those students were doing rhetorical analysis papers on one of Doug's most famous speeches that he ever gave so this gave them more context about his life and times, these are preserved copies that you can flip through of the appeal to read we also get travelers lefties on pilgrimage, I like to say, who've made a long trip specifically to see this museum and be in the home of Eugene V Debs, and then others who were just dropping in looking for a house museum. So, we do get all sorts. My favorite part of these tours is always bringing visitors up to the mural so really taken, basically the bird's eye view of Dad's life and work up here in the attic, because this is the formative turning point for devs, I like to draw a line down here, and we can say cause and effect, this is so important to talk about today and to learn about this history because so many of the problems that Deb saw and railed against in his lifetime, honestly didn't go anywhere. We have to really believe that humans are capable of building a better, more just, equitable peaceful society. So that's why we keep our doors open.

Unknown Speaker  33:48  
So I hope you enjoyed that, and I would like to expand at this time on who exactly Eugene Debs, was he was a historical figure of almost mythical proportions, both revered and reviled in his lifetime. And today, he was a founder of the American Railway union leader of the 1894 Pullman strike, founder of the Socialist Party of America, and then five times socialist presidential candidate, a prolific writer and magnetic speaker jailed for leading a massive strike, and decades later imprisoned for opposing World War One, Debs was a symbol of protests from the Gilded Age, through the Progressive Era. Born in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1855, Debs was the third of six children born to French immigrant parents, Daniel and Daisy dads. As young Jean came of age, he saw Terre Haute grow from a quiet agricultural community, to a bustling transportation hub, the city's location at the intersections of the Wabash River several major rail lines the national road today us 40 And then eventually the construction of us 41 Earn Terre Haute, the nickname the crossroads of America later adopted by the state of Indiana as its motto, dead, his life was full of literal and figurative crossroads, these inflection points and difficult choices with far reaching consequences. His parents chose to raise Jean Debs and his siblings in a literary tradition of humanism romanticism and the French Enlightenment, when he wasn't attending public school or helping his parents run their small grocery store, Jean Debs was immersed in the writings of Voltaire and Victor Hugo, he was named for the two French writers, Eugene Zhu, and Victor Hugo, both of whom wrote of the struggles of the oppressed. So it comes as no surprise that young jeans favorite book was Hugo's lambdas around, pardon my French, which I'm sure most of you will know the story of John Bel John, who spent 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. So that early education in Injustice and equality shaped Eugene's growing sense of social responsibility, and then leaving school at age 14 to work on the railroad, Debs witnessed and experienced terrible inhumane working conditions. In the absence of safe equipment safety regulations labor laws or even employer liability for deaths and injuries of employees, which were frequent. It wasn't difficult for deaths to recognize the conflict between employers profit and worker safety. At 19, he joined a fledgling labor union, the brotherhood of locomotive firemen. At the time really a fraternal organization that provided members families with cash death benefits when locomotive firemen were killed on the job. At a time when our government was not involved in the task of social safety nets. These death benefits kept widows and their children out of poverty or reliance on charity so driven by a worthy cause. Dad's found his skills as an organizer, and his calling as an agitator. He led the brotherhood of locomotive firemen, as its national secretary for over a decade. And at the same time, he edited the union's publication, which was widely read and included a women's department for the fireman's wives, and he also traveled around the country helping workers organize unions and even more trades and industries, and our dads did not limit his activity to organized labor in Terre Haute He served two terms as city clerk at one term as a representative in the Indiana General Assembly as a Democrat, he wasn't a socialist yet, I like to say he's trying to work within the established system and there in the State House, Deb supported failed measures to extend suffrage to women and remove racial distinctions from the state's constitution. He also introduced a bill meant to hold railroad companies liable for deaths of employees, a gutsy move, understanding the rubber power of every state house in the country at the time, and depth was so discouraged when the State Senate, do you think his bill with amendments that he withdrew it and pledged to his younger brother that he would never run for public office again. I think he spoke too soon because that younger brother would be tasked with helping manage five presidential campaigns in the decades to come. But it's also around this time that Eugene Debs Mary Kate metal and intelligent young woman born into a family of German immigrants, Kate was later an activist in her own right, as a participant in the suffrage movement, Kate and Jean married in 1885, and built their queen in home in Terre Haute, in 1890, paid for Richins comfortable salary as a union official. Now the brotherhood of locomotive firemen and other craft unions like it tended to avoid confrontation over wages and working conditions. Instead, seeking harmony, were in cooperation with employers, does even at this time, oppose labor strikes in these years, but would later come to see strikes as a powerful tool for change. Rubber records alone, organized into about a dozen exclusive craft unions, so the break then the switchman the conductors firemen and so on. Were all divided out in this model of organization did help a small segment of skilled workers win important benefits, but by the height of the Gilded Age, Dez looked at the railroads and saw something similar to what we might see today in Walmart, Amazon, or Disney, the single most powerful employers in this country are first corporations, building political influence to benefit their economic interests and strong enough to defeat the small craft unions led by people like this by pitting them against each other and sowing division among workers. So say this which men go on strike for fair wages, you could bet that the firemen and engineers were more conservative would cross the picket line. Railroads could simply rely on scabs or replacement workers to bring strikes, and often hired African American and immigrant workers as strikebreakers capitalizing on these existing divisions and further pitting worker against worker. And here we approach. Another crossroads, by the 1890s, the labor movement was growing, but unparalleled inequality was growing faster. Well Carnegie and Rockefeller amass their fortunes 1000s of unemployed men marched across the country to Washington DC to demand federal jobs programs, their calls went unanswered for decades. And here, Jean Debs had to decide. Continue with an organizing model that couldn't match the combined power of the railroads and entirely lift out workers considered unskilled or try something new. He took a risk, resigned from his position at the head of the Brotherhood of locomotive firemen and co founded the American Railway in 1893. This is a brand new kind of labor organization with the potential to organize across an entire industry for the first time, regardless of workers occupations positions and skill levels. So for the first time, engineers and engine cleaners could organize together into one strong union and the experiment exploded. Within a year of its founding, and following a successful strike on the Great Northern Railroad, the American Railway union ballooned to 150,000 members, larger than all the former railroad Brotherhood's combined. And with that unity came power. Now the American robber union has a chance to break another barrier by abolishing the color line within this union. Most unions of the era barred black workers from membership but Deb's insisted on the necessity of organizing black ribbon workers into the American Railway union and all why a delegation voted 110 to 112, not to organize black workers in depth would later describe this failing as a contributing factor in the unions coming tonight. And that demise came with the Pullman strike of 1894, known in some circles as the Debs rebellion to strike begin with about 2000 workers living in the eponymous company town today a neighborhood on Chicago Southside Pullman. These were factory workers who built the innovative and luxurious Pullman cars, the ones known as hotels on wheels, and there's one worker described the company town. We are born in a Pullman House said from the Pullman shops, taught in a Pullman school catechized in the Pullman church, and when we die, we shall go to the Pullman Hill. George Pullman, the person called this town that he controlled an experiment in benevolent capitalism. But many workers resented Pullman's paternalism and insistence on social control from strict dress codes in the community to alcohol bans, aside from the Florence Hotel, which workers were not allowed to enter into town. And not to mention the usual risk at the time of losing one's job as retaliation for organizing workplace was compounded by the potential loss of a workers home and community alongside a job loss. So to make a long story short, these factory workers were eligible to join the Aru, because tracks ran through their workplace, now facing a livable wage cuts, after the panic of 1893 Pullman workers staged a wildcat strike, not technically authorized by you, by their union, but they spontaneously walked out of their factory shops in Pullman one department at a time. Their demands were reinstatement of their wages, pre cuts and a reduction in their housing rental costs charged by the company. George Pullman refused to bargain, he didn't believe in collective bargaining. So, These workers ask their union with Debs at its head to support their strike with a secondary boycott, those are illegal today of any train moving a Pullman car. Debs at this time was very Scot skeptical and cautious about strikes he's seen them backfire and more often than not, but he called an AR U convention in Chicago and took a vote. The members not at Debs direction but on their own votes, voted to endorse a boycott of any train moving that Pullman car, and in enacting that boycott in July, June and July of 1894, effectively halted every major railroad line from Detroit to California. And the kicker here is that its President Grover Cleveland, for whom Debs campaigned as the pro labor Democrat who gave the green light to send in the United States Army, to break the strike, and take control of the railroads, about 30 workers are estimated to have been killed by federal troops, about half of those in Chicago in the skirmishes that erupt across the country does is more striking workers were injured hundreds were arrested and 1000s blacklisted or barred from employment in the railroad industry as retaliation for, for participating in this strike. Dad's and all the officers of the Aru were jailed for violating a court order meant to break the strike. This is the end of the American Railway Union. But it was only the beginning for industrial unionism, More industry wide unions would follow as miners steel workers auto workers and garment workers organized powerful inclusive unions that improve the lives of millions, over the last century. And when discussing the Pullman strike at the museum. I also like to ask our guests to think about what it may have meant for a railroader in Montana, or California, to risk, not just his job, but his safety. In the face of violence, to stand up for someone that he had never met in Pullman, Illinois. These workers really prove that an injury to one is an injury to all, even in the face of dire consequences. Can you imagine the problems that we could solve today, if we were all willing to fight that hard for someone that we don't know. And that's for decades. He was now ready to fight, not just for his fellow tradesmen and railroaders, but for the entire working class at yet another Crossroads steps could not reconcile the distance between the promise of this country's founding, and the reality, faced by the working class, in this case that's saw what he would describe as an economy and political system controlled by the wealthiest and a government willing to use deadly military force to protect the interests of capital. Now this was no overnight switch to socialism Debs did not come out of the six month jail sentence the socialist, he was actually a populist at that time, he campaigned for reformer William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election of 1896. Now Brian was outspent by the Republicans about 30 to one that year, lost easily, and he viewed Brian's defeat by McKinley, as the proverbial nail in the coffin for this two party political system. And that's declared in January of 1897, the issue is socialism, versus capitalism. I am for socialism, because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough money, no longer constitutes a proper basis of both vitalization. The time has come to regenerate society, and we are on the eve of universal change. Deb soon co founded the Socialist Party of America, campaigning for the presidency five times in total on the idea of restructure the economy to democratic worker control. Deb's also campaigned on ideas like the weekend, child labor laws, workers compensation. Unemployment Relief, social security, safety protections reforms that were on the Socialist Party platform that many workers have achieved today through political action, and workplace organizing. Now these socialists led by Dems were also profoundly committed to democracy. There's an old saying that goes something like different versions sometimes that if the people that saying that the people should control the railroads to prevent the railroads from controlling the people. and if socialists, see public or government or collective ownership of those industries as the mechanism to achieve democratic control, then it would be necessary to ensure that our government is actually controlled by a large swath of the people, rather than the two parties that Deb's thought only represented the interests of capital. So he campaigned on proportional representation, allowing more political parties to participate in governing. He also wanted to abolish the United States Senate, which was not elected for most of his life or at least directly elected. He also fought, or campaigned on the direct election of justices, rather than judicial appointments, which he thought were undemocratic. He also wanted to expand the uses of initiative, recall and referendum and campaigned on universal suffrage in law, as well as in fact. Now the Socialist Party eventually took a controversial stance opposing World War One, challenging the Wilson administration's sedition and espionage laws, policies that criminalized criticism of the war effort, or of the government as aiding the enemy at still another crossroads, Debs defied these laws, delivering a fiery anti war speech in Canton, Ohio. He said that it's always the wealthy who declare the wars, and it's always the workers who fight the battles, and a lot more, it was an almost two hour speech, but he was arrested, tried, convicted of sedition at the federal courthouse in Cleveland, so lots of Ohio Connections here. At his sentencing hearing dad's had the chance. The chance to address the court and said, Your Honor, years ago, I recognized my kinship with all of the things and made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest Stoner, I said then and I say now that while there is a lower class I in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. And while there is a soul in prison. I am not free. And this lives on by the way, as the Deb's credo for the dubs foundation. But the judge was not moved, and handed down a 10 year prison sentence. Debs, then in his 60s and in poor health would not live 10 years past his sentencing. While in prison in Atlanta, Debs campaign one last time for the presidency, running on the slogan convict number 9653 for president. He earned nearly a million votes, three and a half percent of the popular vote in 1920. He also went out of his way to make life better for his fellow prisoners, he worked in the prisons hospital and read and wrote for fellow inmates who couldn't even fill out their legal forms. His release came at Christmas time 1921 When President Harding granted a commutation to time served. The result of a nationwide campaign to release political prisoners, Debs returned to Terre Haute greeted by a crowd of 50,000, but never recovered from the toll that prison took on his physical health. Eugene Debs died of heart failure, at the age of 70 in 1926, and over 5000 people attended his funeral service in Terre Haute held from the porch of the house and shown here in this slide. And though, a majority of workers never fully embrace dead to socialist politics, Debs was and remains a symbol of struggle, his powerful writing and aeration spoke directly to the struggles of working people who found, and often still find themselves discarded by an economic system that seems to prioritize profit over safety and dignity. And most importantly, Debs never lost his hope and the potential of democracy, knowing that engaged citizens can unite for their shared interest and create profound change. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed, honestly, by the scope of depths of struggle, what it meant and what it can mean to us today. These themes, ranging from democracy, leadership, perseverance, issues of free speech, political participation dissent and protest, and above all, solidarity, fighting for someone that you don't know. These are the messages that everyone needs to hear. And I'm excited to talk about how the Deb's museum tells these stories. But how did the Debs his home become a museum in the first place. Well after Kate's death in 1936, the homeless sold to a history professor who taught at the nearby teachers college now, Indiana State University. The professor and his family moved on after about a decade, and then Cena chi moved in. So yes, this was a frat house for about a decade to the 50s I cannot guess or comments on how preservation minded the guys were but the house is still standing so I can give them that much. These challenges would continue as Indiana State

Unknown Speaker  53:13  
was expanding its campus into the part of Terre Haute that made up Jeannine Kate's neighborhood at one time, and all the Victorian homes that once lined the street, except for the Deb's house were acquired and eventually raised by the university, but thankfully at this time. Historians at ISU plus folks involved in organized labor locally and nationally recognized the threat to the home, and quickly formed the Eugene V, Debs foundation as a nonprofit, for the purpose of purchasing and preserving the home of Eugene Debs, as a memorial. The core group recruited dozens of charter members involved in the arts, culture, politics and labor, including writers like Upton Sinclair, John Dos Passos, the poet roofless prod and the socialist standard bearer Norman Thomas who's shown here at the dedication of the devs house with the jeans nice, Marguerite Deb's Cooper and Ned Bush, one of the earliest caretakers of the dad's home once it was acquired by the Dutch foundation.

Unknown Speaker  54:19  
Another one of our notable foundation founders, was named Eugene dyfi And he was actually the son of the warden, who ran the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, while deputies and present there, decades later, he taught philosophy at Indiana State, and had a hand in helping save the Deb's house. So all in all, 63 charter members came together to preserve the Debs home in 1962, labor unions generously contributed to the restoration of the home, and by the time the museum opened in 1965, it was considered a shrine of labor. The site was designated as a national historic landmark in 1966, the year of that program's inception, and I'm very interested in this passage from our NHL nomination paperwork, reading that although Debs was later a candidate for the presidency and an outspoken proponent of socialism landmark status is primarily due to judges work in the organization of labor unions. Now, in Terre Haute, along with most of the country by the 1960s, there was not a lot of tolerance for an idea associated with war and geopolitical turmoil. So, this shows in, and this shows up in the museum's early messaging as a train of labor history sometimes downplaying that socialism idea, but by the 1980s, socialists in the US, largely embraced the term democratic socialism, To distinguish themselves perhaps in an attempt from the capital city communist and embracing and democratic, rather than authoritarian path to economic restructuring. Today, the Democratic socialists of America, which claims to be a standard there, and continuing the legacy of debt the Socialist Party of America has 92,000 members are over that today, which is approaching the Socialist Party of America's highest membership count of about 113,000 in 1912, and today's democratic socialists, while far from leading a revolution, raise very important questions about the limits of markets to provide adequate access to health care, housing and Long Term Ecological stability for this planet. So these are some of my friends in the central Indiana DSA considering carrying the banner for decades now, and well socialism today is a little bit of a hot topic. It's not the singular focus at the museum, we recognized four key pillars of debs his life's work, unionism, socialism, peace, and prison abolition. Now while there is no expectation that all of our guests agree with all of that his ideas and assessments of society that's just unrealistic, but there are endless opportunities to see these issues in a new light using historical context, primary sources and human stories. So personal interpretive tours are at the centerpiece of the museum's operation, Debs, his life is full of what the field likes to call difficult history like violence, exploitation and politics that converge on the taboo words like socialism can make some people understandably nervous, and we can't really avoid all of that discomfort, where we can challenge assumptions, find common ground, and welcome anyone willing to relate and engage. This is a small enough operation that I'm able to provide most of our tours giving a lot of attention to personal interpretation, and I also work with a small but very mighty group of volunteers docents, most of whom are activists in one form or another, ranging from retirees to students, largely from ISU and Indiana State University is a pretty good neighbor, sending a steady stream of history interns and class visits to the museum is used coming here in Memorial Library also houses the depth collection within a Special Collections Department, making up a remarkable archives serving. Serving labor scholars and political historians all over the country, the depth collection also serves as the museum's official repository, which is an invaluable resource because like most houses we lack really good archival storage conditions in space. Now the museum and foundation regularly host programs alongside university departments and student organizations. These range from Women's History tours of the house for Isus annual Women's History Month colloquium to this past year's academic conference co hosted by is US Department of History, and for the ladder. The Deb's Foundation was able to utilize our old friend zoom to bring together scholars from around the globe for a conference titled while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. The history of solidarity and social and economic justice, this was a very meaningful event, I learned a lot, even though we had a few zoom bombers, but the slide here shows some of our conference participants. And speaking of souls in prison. That theme was chosen for the conference, because the fall of 2020, of course, marked the 100th anniversary of dead's his fifth and final campaign for the presidency from his Atlanta prison cell. In the fall of 1920 of course dad's Ran is contact 9653 and there's almost a million votes in a remarkable protest campaign during the fall of 2020, we were all in the throes of a very different, but maybe no less contentious presidential election. We were also on the heels of an entire season of protests and rebellion. Following the killing of George Floyd. And as the season turned the Midwest approached a new explosion in COVID-19 cases and that's the pandemic exposed our society's deepest inequalities and it revived old questions about the conflict between safety and profits. The task of connecting devs from 1920 to 2020 fell almost too big, so I reached out to our social media community for some help, we tried to keep a vibrant connection with folks online, and the result of that connection was this compilation video which I will share now.

Unknown Speaker  1:01:02  
You dream

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Victor Debs, Eugene Debs,

Unknown Speaker  1:01:05  
well Eugene Debs means to me when I think of Eugene Debs,

Unknown Speaker  1:01:08  
Eugene V Debs, of course, is known as a great American labor leader and socialist presidential candidates

Unknown Speaker  1:01:13  
I've been researching the lives and families of both Kate and Jean Debs,

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I wrote a book about the Pullman strike called the edge of anarchy,

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guessing if you go can you be taught that per me. Here's

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what prisoner 9653 says to me 100 years on

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1000s of years ago, the question was asked. Am I my brother's keeper. A question has never yet been answered in a way that satisfactory to civilized society.

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I believe in the right of free speech, in war as well as in peace. I would not under any circumstances suppress free speech,

Unknown Speaker  1:01:51  
I'm going to read one of my favorite quotes by him. The mission of the bicycle is greatly underrated human ingenuity in evolving the bicycle has given man a mighty boon. And when monopoly and special privilege are abolished the bicycle may be purchased for a song, and it'll be within the reach of all

Unknown Speaker  1:02:22  
of all the qualities that we admire most in Eugene Debs. Probably number one is his ability to empathize, for me,

Unknown Speaker  1:02:33  
reading his life story inspired a hope that people can see injustice and change accordingly, that they can form new opinions and rethink old ones.

Unknown Speaker  1:02:44  
I think there's a lot we can still learn from dabbs 100 years later about class solidarity,

Unknown Speaker  1:02:52  
truly recognizing the humanity of every person on this earth, and treating them with the same respect and dignity, no matter their station,

Unknown Speaker  1:03:01  
Eugene Debs fought for the common person, he fought for a more just world a more just society.

Unknown Speaker  1:03:07  
He stood for decency, he stood for empathy and compassion,

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leaving behind a legacy of equality, and just, you know, making sure that everyone has a chance to succeed, to succeed.

Unknown Speaker  1:03:21  
The characteristic that stands out of Eugene Debs is his humanity.

Unknown Speaker  1:03:27  
And a couple of short words Debs mean means equality, to me, quality for all

Unknown Speaker  1:03:34  
Esperanza, is the answer they will mundo donde de la que se economic is possibly known the attention medica Twitter para todos especilly don't disable your likes protests yonder morale, don't allow for his cursos del mundo se this revision, only for my mentees en La Migra tion para sobre VV se necesaria

Unknown Speaker  1:03:54  
you know dad spent a lot of time in jail, opposing World War One. And I think that's something we can still learn from

Unknown Speaker  1:04:02  
you know a lot of people talk about sacrifice, but very few people undertake. Eugene Debs is my hometown hero, we both hail from Terre Haute, Indiana was the

Unknown Speaker  1:04:11  
inspiration for a 10 year career as a labor organizer on the CSS railroad. And it's

Unknown Speaker  1:04:17  
time that we get together and organize and fight for the workers fair share of the pie.

Unknown Speaker  1:04:23  
Most importantly, this year is that no matter how many times the system tries to remove your voice. The only way to really change that system is to participate in it.

Unknown Speaker  1:04:38  
Esma Hora votar por lo que Kira e nope tenerlo K water por lo que Nakia econ sigillo,

Unknown Speaker  1:04:45  
and we must make sure that we exercise our right to vote, but more importantly, we exercise our right to organize,

Unknown Speaker  1:04:52  
and just as Joe Hill. Eugene Victor Debs, has not died,

Unknown Speaker  1:04:59  
and seeing his legacy live on today, and inspire people in the US and around the world to do the same thing, gives me hope for our future and beyond 2020 Solidarity forever from Portland, Oregon,

Unknown Speaker  1:05:09  
solidarity from Crestview, Florida,

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solidarity from Pelham New Hampshire

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solidarity from Arkansas

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solidarity from Pittsburgh

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solidarity forever from Terre Haute,

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in solidarity from Atlanta.

Unknown Speaker  1:05:25  
Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I'm on the moral obligation to home inspired, not by any more than set fatality, but by the higher do the Iota myself.

Unknown Speaker  1:05:51  
So I hope this video provided a healthy dose of inspiration at a time when we can all use it I think. And this video made up an important part of the virtual presentation from last fall, titled convict 9653 at 100. The program centered on the live streaming of a recent documentary, The revolutionist Eugene V Debs by Wi Fi public media Indianapolis and narrated by Danny Glover, that can, by the way, be streamed for free at W fyi.org slash dads. But after the film presentation, we were able to bring together the film's director, and major Deb's historian, renowned labor leader today and are the foundation's President Neil Beasley, who is also a retired retired labor leader for a panel discussion on Deb's relevance today, and the program close with the performance of old Union songs performed by performed live in fact, on zoom by Labor photo Magpie shown here. And for the last two summers we also pivoted the museum's biggest event, which is held annually in June. The program was pretty new, I call it devs and our voices began in 2018. To mark the centennial of debs as anti war speech that resulted in his imprisonment. So dozens of volunteers read short portions of that speech right from the porch of his home until we made it through the entire speech over 12,000 words, it was a real marathon and it forced us to grapple with how much had or had not changed in the last 100 years. As we brought Debs his words to life in our own voices, and every year since June of 2018. We bring depth his words to life by hosting another annual public live reading event, drawing on depth his writings on a new theme, each year. In the most recent iteration of debs in our voices drew on debtors prison writings walls and bars, published posthumously walls and bars is actually a collection of essays and articles by Debs on his experiences with incarceration. He fiercely criticized the prison system as brutal dehumanizing and irredeemable beyond reformed. Dad's imagine a more just economic system, which could actually render prisons obsolete by addressing the root causes of crime, poverty and unmet needs his writing was incisive and it carries special meaning today as today's activists continue to question our reliance on carceral solutions to economic and social problems. So we pivoted, several virtual programs using video conferencing, and also simultaneous live streaming on our social media sites, and then sharing the program recordings over our YouTube channel. And as many of you probably discovered these changes meant that overall programs had a much further reach than their in person, pre pandemic counterparts. Hundreds of people have also participated in free virtual house tours via video conference, which in practice is pretty low tech, I just have a zoom app on my phone and walk through the house, giving a tour to my phone, but for all of our guests sitting in the safety of their own homes and classrooms, introduced a few months into the pandemic but have decided to keep it as a permanent visiting option to keep the house accessible for out of town visitors, other virtual programs have included guest speakers lectures, musical performances, and even a poetry salon for National Poetry Month Deb's love poetry. And our next virtual program will honor an organization keeping the devs legacy alive since 1965 The Debs Foundation has recognized individuals and people, outstanding folks who are working in the desean tradition of peace, justice and equality. So Deb's award honoree is a short sampling include union leaders like John Lewis. A. Philip Randolph Diller swear to Richard Trumka and Bill Lucy activists actors like Ed Asner and Danny Glover and writers like Kurt Vonnegut my personal favorite, and Molly Ivan's and along with organizations like SEIU is fight for 15, and jobs as justice, shown here is justice. Justice is executive director sweet it got the accepting the 2017 Deb's award at our annual banquet program. So typically the occasion does call for a large banquet in Terre Haute, but recent events have complicated that tradition, we were able, we were unable to host a banquet program in 2020, and this year we will hold a virtual award presentation, honoring the Innocence Project, which fights for the exoneration of the wrongly convicted, using DNA evidence, the Innocence Project is an essential part of the continuing struggle to achieve justice for all. So you can tune into that award program on October 23 and details are coming on our website. Deb's foundation.org So that award program shows that the deads his legacy extends so much further than the house that his legacy continues in the living and breathing labor struggles and social movements of our own time. It appears that my generation is rediscovering the power of a union, and I like to think that all of us can take heart of hope in the potential of democracy, even in times like this or especially in times like this, we all deserve to say in the conditions of our work in the conditions of our lives, and it is my hope that the museum empowers our visitors to find their voices get involved in a movement, and keep building on this desean tradition. So thank you for the chance to share, I've had a great time presenting, and I would love to hear your questions and insights. I know it's a great group of people here, and I'm going to end my screen.

Unknown Speaker  1:11:55  
Thanks for the chance to present today announcing any questions in the chat or in the q&a so please feel free to drop those in anytime. I'm also happy to expand or elaborate on any of the topics discussed so far. I can no pilot says,

Unknown Speaker  1:12:36  
Hello. Sorry, I lost contact there on that as one of your people said last at your conference on a 19th century 20th century person, not a 21st century person so apologize to everyone. So I don't see any, Any questions at the moment. I would like to add a few things if I can't good, Alison That was so good program. It just blows your mind all of the things that are connected to Eugene Debs and what the museum is doing, and I'm so happy that you're the director there you've been there since 2016 is that right, yeah, yeah. And so in the meantime you came to Cleveland, and gave a presentation in 2018 at the anniversary of the trial of Eugene Debs, which is on your website, you can up for people who aren't familiar, you can go to the Eugene Debs website it is an amazing collection of information you can spend hours reading all of that, and you will come away with a whole new experience, and her talk is there the conference, all of the conference talks are there. The conference last year that you mentioned that happened, I believe it was in April because we were doing your, your conference the same time we were doing our regional meetings, which is why I didn't get to go to it on Zoom, and that's a wonderful and the magpie group by the way is from Akron. And so there's another high up connection, and you're a Buckeye, born and raised Correct.

Unknown Speaker  1:14:10  
I'm close I'm from like half an hour from Ohio but my dad is from defiance, so I was raised in the Buckeye tradition. I wonder honorary I guess

Unknown Speaker  1:14:20  
so, yeah. So let me see if we have any more. Any more questions here. I don't see any. Maybe this is because a lot of this information is new to people.

Unknown Speaker  1:14:37  
I do see.

Unknown Speaker  1:14:39  
Yeah, I think Allison also saw there's a note from Greg there, Allison can take it away.

Unknown Speaker  1:14:44  
Go. Yeah, um, I see a note from Greg, how were we affected by the closure of campus on our programming and access over COVID-19 It was difficult as it was for. I'm sure all of us today, But the university closed about a day before the museum closes that, you know, march 2020 When the dominoes started to fall and we close their doors with students being sent home. It was really strange time for the campus to be empty in the spring when it should have been really busy and bustling, but we were able to move our tours to zoom, and even kept having ISD classes able to visit once all of their courses were put online, or at least many of them were put online we were able to bring classes in over zoom so up to 100 people in a regular Zoom account, were able to take a tour of the house with their classes, and of course it's not the same, we've all learned it's not quite the same as having that face to face interaction, we're not able to build quite as much on the energy of the visitors, but we were still able, like for example with the annual events that I see the Women's History Month colloquium, I always do Women's History tours of the house for that. We just moved it to zoom, and so it, it wasn't ideal in every case but we were able to at least do what we could with what we had. And I mentioned that the virtual tours have remained as a permanent option so if anyone is ever interested in checking out the devs house, whether it's individually with your families or friends or even your own organizations, you can just get a hold of us at Museum at dead foundation.org Those are free, we'll set you up with a zoom link for your, for your meeting and tour, all of our tours are free, we keep the house as a free museum since its inception and just rely on donations, but I'm seeing. Have you received any negative feedback from people who have different political beliefs from devs and how do we react to that yeah absolutely like nobody agrees with everything that Deb said, well, maybe there's a handful today but everybody has some place that they can take issue with some of these really controversial divisive things that Deb's took stances on, and it's really a matter, I hope it's not too cliche but of building on Common Ground. One experience that always sticks out to me is a family that visited a couple years ago, who I always like to open up is what brought you in today. Where's your interest lie or whatever and his family explained that they wanted to show their kids, why shows why socialism is bad, and why it doesn't work, and we don't, we don't do that, but we can at least talk about Deb's perspective and why he became a socialist, and maybe see what some of the parallels are today, but I came to find out that this family didn't even know that dubs was a labor leader as well, and the parents in this family were both union members who had been locked out and a strike in Ohio, and they had a union consciousness they recognize that their union was helping them for their own interest, not helping them that they were part of an organization and co workers, and were able to unite for their common interests and being able to expand on the idea of the Union, economic democracy in a specific workplace. And then for Doug's, it's really just an expansion of that idea into the broader economy, having a say in our economy, and by the end of the tour. These parents were thinking gee, it kind of looks like the Republicans and Democrats are two rings of the same bird, and that socialism, might not carry all the the taboo or discussing this that maybe a lot of us are raised to think so. It's just about finding what in that visitor can relate to something in beds, it doesn't have to be unions, it doesn't have to be socialism, but we still have child labor and we still have sweatshop working conditions and we still have, I think you could argue worse for profit. These are just arguments you can make but you don't have to agree with everything Deb said to see the problems that he talked about, and at least the symptoms of these problems still face us today. So it's just a matter of sensitivity, not making assumptions and then also asking people to let go of preconceived notions, which can be tricky, but I always like to try to use some humor and disarm folks by saying, Excuse me, that I'm not trying to organize them into the party that's not my role here. I would rather just think about, you know, even if you don't agree, why this might embrace some of these ideas. So for the most part people are pretty open and willing to hear great questions from Greg and sailors,

Unknown Speaker  1:19:32  
yeah this great question, um, would you like to comment on your plan to renovate the house coming up and your fundraising on that if people would like to donate

Unknown Speaker  1:19:43  
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so the house is long overdue for a full restoration, we are in the process of hiring your architecture, we'll write the specs to see us through the rest of the project, but we're looking at a full exterior restoration siding roof windows and then a lot of the interior as well. And we had hoped to be able to move forward with a good chunk of that during the pandemic, but the challenges. It thinks it's like pulling teeth sometimes to how the pace of this can move along, but we are still on the track to restore the house, and if you'd like to support that work you can head to donate that dead foundation.org And, and support our work including the restoration project.

Unknown Speaker  1:20:31  
Alison, there's also a question in the q&a is actually more of a comment, could you comment on learnings while doing zoom tours, they don't expect, expand a lot on that but basically the questions about zoom tours.

Unknown Speaker  1:20:45  
Yeah, and if there is, if there's anything more specific from Susan about what you mean by learnings while doing zoom tours, I'm happy to expand on that too, and it's Zoom is not always the as I said the ideal mechanism for delivering some of these tours but it's really just taking on kind of a modified shorter version of the house tour which depending on the guests and the group visiting can range from an hour to an hour and a half, zoom, kind of, I've noticed tends to shorten our time, our attention spans a little bit, not as much to interact with in person so kind of paring it down to the most important significant aspects of this story and its history, and asking questions as much as I can, getting the guests to engage with some prompts in the chat and in the q&a, I like to do art appreciation in the house. We've got a lot of sculptures and paintings and getting guests to react to some of that artwork is another way of getting folks to engage and looking back in the q&a more of the technical challenges, if any, and that's been, I think tricky too because we all kind of, I mean I was using zoom a little bit before the pandemic but not a lot. We were able to have a really great tech person a lot like Carla actually who helped us with some of our virtual programs and making sure that some of the generations on our like board of directors and officers who weren't as versed in some of these programs had access to everything they needed to be able to work with Zoom, for example and facilitate it. I think could have gone a lot worse than what it did. And for the most part, for the most part, by now, a lot of folks have used zoom for their own purposes and with their families, so I'm able to walk people through some of the basics of using Zoom before virtual tour if they haven't used it yet, we can take five minutes to get set up, but I'm finding that a lot of folks are actually bringing in some by now, a year and a half in some prior knowledge of programs like zoom, and it's not as much of an uphill climb, as it had been back in, say, April in May of 2020. And then, yeah, sorry.

Unknown Speaker  1:23:08  
I was just gonna say, um, I think I agree with Greg on his comment here in the chat that a lot of things that we take for granted today like weekends. I mean these are things that people were fighting for back in Eugene Debs time. And when you checked off all those items, it was like wow, we, we've come a long way since those days and we don't even appreciate what they did to get that way so I hope we have a healthier respect for the labor movement, and all the sacrifices people made over the, over the decades, and it was very hard for them. And it wasn't just, railroads, it was the coal industry it was all of those industries and the garment factory and all of those that you mentioned, it's part of our American story. And it's important, and I'm so happy that the Debs Museum and you are sharing all this with us because you are very unique situation there and Terre Haute, and we are proud that you're there. So here's the comment from Jen Johnson really makes you think what more we could be fighting for now and hopefully taken for granted in the future. Yes, it's true.

Unknown Speaker  1:24:14  
We should be sorry for any background echo happening here but I think that we should be following closely efforts to unionize museum staffs in history and arts and cultural organizations all over the country, following this closely because the, we're only really I secure as the most poorly treated museum workers, and it's really kind of setting the floor because think about how Amazon workers, and what they're willing to tolerate from people like basis is going to set the floor for what the rest of the working class will have to accept. So I, this isn't like an organizer training or anything like that but I would encourage all of you to talk with your co workers and think about what could be improved with or without a union in your workplace, because that's really what it takes all of the gains from the working class over the last century and a half, did not come as benevolent gifts from enlightened management they were fought for, in many cases bled and died for, as well, so we can't forget the struggle that we went through to have basic labor rights on the job. And we also have to keep in mind that these have been washed back in recent decades, and we have to keep fighting for those and hopefully continuing to build a field that more people are able to work in and make a living in as well.

Unknown Speaker  1:25:32  
Well said. And, and thank you, Allison for being here today. We appreciate you and we're coming close close to the end, we might have a few more minutes, but I just want to take a moment to thank you so much for coming out and sharing all this great information and, and your videos were great, and I encourage everybody to go to your web page and your bookstore, which has a lot of good resources there. It's wonderful. And if you want to attend their virtual award ceremony, it's coming up in three weeks. On October 23 You can sign up and show up virtually you don't have to drive to Terre Haute, this time. So that could be a good and a bad so anyway, encourage everyone to help. All right.

Unknown Speaker  1:26:15  
Awesome, thank you everyone, thank you for attending. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. And I'm going to be closing our session and recording now they can.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai