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Centralia Tragedy
The Centralia Tragedy happened on Armistice Day, November 11, 1919 in Centralia, Washington, USA. At the end of an Armistice Day parade, World War I veterans belonging to the American Legion executed a prearranged plan to attack the local IWW hall. The Wobbly hall had been attacked during a Memorial Day parade the year before, and this time the Wobblies were prepared. When the hall was attacked, a gunfight broke out. Both sides were armed, Wobblies and Legionnaires. Two Legionnaires were shot dead as soon as they attacked the hall. The Legionnaires managed to get in the hall. One of the Wobblies within the hall, a veteran who was fighting with the workers instead of against them, was Wesley Everest. He was chased by the mob and shot and killed one of the gun-wielding Legionnaires before being overcome. Everest was jailed, as were other Wobblies. Even the Wobbly lawyer Elmer Smith was jailed. That evening a lynching party went to the jail and lynched Wesley Everest. Armed vigilantes began hunting in packs for Wobblies. A National Guard company was called out that night.
Four Wobbly prisoners were given the task of burying Everest. They constructed a wooden coffin for him and buried him in an unmarked grave in the local cemetery, accompanied by seventeen armed National Guardsmen.
Subsequent to this, Wobblies in the surrounding area and in Washington state were persecuted even more than they had been before, as well as nationally.
