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Prohibition
In 1919, the required number of State legislatures ratified the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, beginning nationwide Prohibition. Many women, notably the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, had been imporant in bringing about national Prohibition in the U.S., believing it would protect families, women and children from the effects of the abuse of alcohol. Federal Prohibition agents (police) were given the next to impossible task of enforcing the law.
During Prohibition, the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages were restricted or illegal. Prohibition was supposed to lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems, lower taxes needed to support prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. Instead, Alcohol became more dangerous to consume, organized crime grew, courts and prisons systems became overloaded, and police and public officials were frequently bribed to look the other way and allow the illegal flow of alcohol to occur.
Even though the sale of alcohol was illegal, alcoholic drinks were still widely available at "speakeasies" (hidden drinking establishments). Large quantities of alcohol were smuggled in from Canada, overland and via the Great Lakes, by "bootleggers" While the government cracked down on alcohol consuption on land it was a different story on the water where they argued that ships 3 miles offshore were not subject to the law. Needless to say, this technicality was exploited by everyone.
Legal and illegal home brewing was popular during Prohibition. Limited amounts of wine and hard cider were permitted to be made at home. Some commercial wine was still produced in the U.S., but was only available through government warehouses for use in religious ceremonies, mainly for communion.
Whiskey could be obtained by prescription from medical doctors. The labels clearly warned that it was strictly for medicinal purposes and any other uses were illegal, but even so doctors freely wrote prescriptions and drug-stores filled them without question, so the number of "patients" increased dramatically. No attempt was made to stop this practice, so many people got their booze this way. Over a million gallons were consumed per year through freely given prescriptions.
Even prominent citizens and politicians later admitted to having used alcohol during Prohibition. President Harding kept the White House well stocked with bootleg liquor, though, as a Senator, he had voted for Prohibition.
Over time, more people drank illegally and so money ended up in gangsters' pockets. Arguments raged over the effectiveness of Prohibition. It appears to have been successful in some parts of the country but overall led to an increase in crime.
Prohibition also presented lucrative opportunities for organized crime to take over the importing ("bootlegging"), manufacturing, and distributing of alcoholic drinks. Al Capone, one of the most infamous bootleggers of them all, was able to build his criminal empire largely on profits from illegal alcohol.
Every passing year the number of repeal organizations and demand for repeal increased. In 1932, the Democratic Party's platform included a promise to repeal Prohibition, and Franklin Roosevelt ran for President promising to repeal Federal Prohibition laws. By then, an estimated three quarters of American voters, and an estimated forty-six states, favored repeal.
In 1933, the legislatures of the states ratified the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment. The National Government was now officially out of the business of Prohibition. Some States, however, continued Prohibition within
their own borders. Almost two-thirds of the states adopted some form of local option which allowed residents to vote for or against local Prohibition. For awhile, 38% of Americans lived in an area of the country with some form of Prohibition. By 1966, however, all states had fully repealed their state-level Prohibition laws. Some county and city governments around the country still have laws limiting or restricting the use or sale of alcohol in some way.
Prohibition video
Very well done. Roughly 2 and a half minutes
Speakeasies
Bootleggers
Al Capone
The Rise of Fundamentalism
I show the first 2 minutes and then from around 3:25 to the end.
The Scopes Trial
In 1925, a high school science teacher (John Scopes) in Tennessee was accused of violating a law which made it unlawful to teach evolution. Scopes was found guilty, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality and he went free. The trial gained a lot of publicity, as reporters from around the world came to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, to cover the big-name lawyers (former presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and big time defense attorney Clarence Darrow) representing each side. Even though Scopes was set free, many states (mostly in the South) were allowed to continue to deny the teaching of evolution in biology classes for several decades. Tennessee did not remove it's ban on teaching evolution in science classes until 1967.
Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday
Moral Questions in the 1920s
The 4 minute clip discusses urban/rural changes, the Scopes Trial, and Prohibition. This is the 4th video clip that we watched in class that had ?s that went along with it.