Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Eugene V. Debs, born this day in 1855, was a five-time Socialist candidate for U.S. president and won nearly one million votes in 1920 while in prison for his criticism of prosecutions under the 1917 Espionage Act.