The Centralia Tragedy

11/11/2025 6 min
The Centralia Tragedy

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Episode Synopsis

The morning of November 11, 1919, dawned with flags fluttering and veterans standing tall in Centralia, Washington. It was the first anniversary of the Great War’s end, a day meant for solemn remembrance and celebration of peace hard-won. By sundown, that small lumber town had become the stage of one of America’s bloodiest labor conflicts. Four veterans lay dead, a radical hanged by a mob, and a community—and a nation—torn apart between two irreconcilable visions of America.