Choose Your Own Adventure
For our digital exhibit final project, my team and I plan to create an interactive quiz game. Always committed to providing the best blog experience, I have decided to use this week’s blog post as an opportunity brush up on my coding skills in anticipation of this task.
The Centralia Massacre, discussed in class this week, is an example of disputed history. Click through the choose your own adventure story to see history from multiple perspectives!
Good choice, the American Legion is a war veterans organization that was founded last March. With the first anniversary of Armistice Day approaching, Centralia plans to celebrate with an Armistice Day Parade. How will you participate in the festivities?
Watch from home
March with the legion
From your front window, you see pandemonium erupt around the Roderick Hotel. You decide not to get involved with the fighting, but agree to serve on the jury for the subsequent trial.
Jury duty
The parade route weaves past the Roderick Hotel where the IWW has moved their headquarters after their former union hall was looted in April. You have heard murmurings of a repeat attack from your fellow Legionnaires. Do you take action as you walk past the Roderick?
Draw your gun
March past
What good is a labor union anyway? You miss all of the Armistice Day violence and follow up trials. By the time you return home, the atmosphere in Centralia has changed, but no one is willing to talk about what happened.
Read again
As the parade passes by the Roderick Hotel, Wobblies gather around the front windows. Some of your comrades claim the Legion is up to something. What action do you take as the American Legion walks past the Roderick?
Draw your gun
Run
You open fire on the Roderick Hotel as Wobblies begin to shoot. Legionnaires split up; some break down the door, some pursue fleeing members of the IWW, and some take aim from the windows of nearby buildings. As you storm the Roderick, a bullet from your weapon connects with the chest of a Wobbly. You flee the scene, evading arrest, and serve on the jury for the resulting trial.
Jury duty
Though part of the Legion has begun to mount an attack on the Roderick, you continue to march. With your back turned to the fight, a stray bullet grazes your arm. Good thing you are on the jury for the ensuing trial so you can ensure justice is duly served.
Jury duty
You open fire as the Legionnaires pass by. The Legion fires back, but you manage to gun down the Legionnaire who aims at your vantage point. You hunker down in a back corner of the hotel and are arrested once the dust settles.
Terrorism trial
As Wobblies and Legionnaires begin a firefight, you covertly duck out of the hotel and run down the street. With your back to the fighting, a bullet lodges itself in your leg. Crippled, you lie in the street and await arrest for conspiring with the IWW.
Terrorism trial
The jury, full of Legionnaires, convicts eight Wobblies of second degree murder. Your Legion compatriots who are not on the jury, set up camp outside the courthouse, anxiously awaiting the decision. Some believe that justice has been served, but others think the Wobblies deserve a harsher sentence than 25-40 years in prison. Should justice be taken into the hands of the Legion?
Join the Legionnaires in carrying out vigilante justice
The sentence decided in court is fair
Your trial lasts two months, and the court is packed in favor of the Legion. Wobblies receive 25-40 year prison sentences. At least it should be safer than the mine.
Read again
The Wobblies have seen justice for their violence and the Legion is off free. In commemoration of this incident, you work with a public committee to construct a memorial statue titled ‘The Sentinel’.
Read again
The Wobblies killed members of the Legion and need to answer for their crimes. You join a group of Legionnaires on a prison raid during which your group lynches a member of the IWW. You face no charges.
Read again
The Melina Testin Historical Society 