The Right to Dissent

In 1918 as U.S. soldiers fought and died in Europe, labor activist Eugene Debs publicly declared World War I a “Wall Street war” that benefitted only the rich.  For this speech Debs was sentenced to federal prison. Two years later he ran for president and, without ever leaving his cell, won over a million votes, most cast in support of his right as an American to speak freely, even in time of war. Though eventually pardoned, Debs’ imprisonment sparked an argument that still rages: does the Constitution protect free speech during wartime? With social historian Ernest Freeberg.