Biography
Bert Bland was a logger and IWW member at the Centralia, Washington local, and the brother of O.C. Bland. He was among the seven Wobblies convicted of second-degree murder following the November 11, 1919 Centralia Tragedy. Bland was sentenced to 25 to 40 years at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla and paroled in the early 1930s.
One of the eight IWW defendants tried at Montesano (Grays Harbor County), WA from January 26 to March 13, 1920 for the deaths of four American Legionnaires (Warren Grimm, Arthur McElfresh, Ben Casagranda, Dale Hubbard) during the Armistice Day, November 11, 1919 attack on the Centralia, WA IWW union hall. Convicted of 2nd-degree murder despite the IWW's defense that they were defending the union hall from an armed mob. Sentenced to 25-40 years at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla. The case became a long-running cause célèbre of the IWW and the labor left, with the Centralia Publicity Committee and later the Free Ray Becker Committee organizing for parole and pardon over two decades.
