Prohibition

• Many groups in the USA feared what alcohol was doing.

  The temperance movement argued that childrens health was at danger.
• The prohibition movement had powerful support, a national ban was introduced by the volstead act of 1920
• It became easy to find speakeasies in cities, these were supplied by bootleggers who smuggled alcohol into the US
• Rival gangs ran this illegal but profitable trade, gang warfare was common, in chicago there was 130 murders and no arrests in 1926-27
• The most famous gangster was Al Capone. In 1929 he organised the st valentines day massacre
• The act was repealed by Roosevelt in 1933.
• Prohibition failed because it didnt stop people drinking, instead it made them drink more dangerous things like moonshine which caused blindness or death