Randa Abdel-Fattah

We cannot fail.

Debs urged the strikers to remain calm and united.

But the workers didn't back down.

So then the federal courts issued an injunction.

Saying that the ARU is not allowed to strike like that.

to get the strikers away from the trains so that SCAB workers can operate the engines and get the trains moving again.

It was chaos.

Approximately 30 workers were killed.

The majority of them were killed in Chicago.

And hundreds were arrested in skirmishes throughout the nation.

The strike had failed.

It's estimated that nearly 250,000 workers took part in the strike.

Debs went to prison for six months.

And as he sat in his cell, he came to the conclusion that the American political system was broken.

On the day he was released from prison, he was greeted by 100,000 people.

Looking onto the crowd, he gave a rousing speech.

Eugene Debs' role in the Pullman strike and the Liberty speech in Chicago made many see him as the champion of the working person in America.

He was a fiery populist who was unafraid to challenge big business.

And this fame gave him a path into national politics, a path he initially didn't want to take.

But he couldn't stop thinking about his realization that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats really represented workers.