Introduction to Prohibition

Prohibition (18th Amendment)

Outlaws the sale, manufacture and transportation of

intoxicating beverages

Introduction to Prohibition

• What was Prohibition?• Define Temperance• Define Morality• Define Pious• How did prohibition bring out organized

crime?• Can and should the government

institute morality into our society?

Road to Prohibition

•I. 18th Amendment; ratified 1919, took effect Jan. of 1920

II. Where and why did it begin?–A. Middle America – Bible Belt

–B. Pious Movement–C. Moral (Morality) Crusade

–Evils of Alcohol

III. Prohibition Organizations

• A. Women’s Christian Temperance Movement

What is Temperance

Carrie Nation – Molly Hatchet

Carrie Nation

III. Prohibition Organizations cont.

•B. Anti-Saloon League Wyanne Wheeler

Movement became more powerful politically

•C. Impact of WWI

IV. Who approved it? Every state except for Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey

US became “Dry” in January 1920

V. Volstead Act

• Defines what is illegal and outlines the enforcement of Prohibition

• Exceptions to the rule

–For example Church or medicine

•VI. The Enforcers – Prohibition Bureau

A. Prohibition AgentsB. Izzy and Moe

Izzy and Moe

VIII. Road to Repealing Prohibition

• A. Corruption in the Prohibition Bureau

• B. Organized Crime “Speakeasies”– Gangsters owned speakeasies and by

1925 there were over 100,000 speakeasies in New York City alone.

• C. Rum Runners• D. Drys vs. Wets

Detroit police inspecting equipment found in a hidden underground brewery during

the prohibition era.

Agent with the U.S. Treasury Department's Prohibition Bureau during a time when bootlegging

was rampant throughout the nation.

Chicago gangster during Prohibition who controlled the “bootlegging” industry.

Al CaponeAl Capone Elliot Ness, part of the UntouchablesElliot Ness, part of the Untouchables

End of Prohibition

•VIII. 21st Amendment- 1933Repeal of 18th Amendment