America 1920s Prohibition

• Prohibition


  The period from 1920 to 1933 when the manufacture and consumption of alcohol were banned across America by the federal government
• Supporters of Prohibition saw it as a noble cause, but it ultimately failed and had to be repealed
• Groups who wanted alcohol banned


  • Social campaigners who worried about the social impact of drunkenness, crime, violence and domestic abuse
  • Temperance societies such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union which opposed alcohol for religious and moral reasons
  • Some business leaders who believed that alcohol lessened the efficiency of their workers
  • The Anti-Saloon League which was the most successful group to organise politically to put pressure on the government to ban alcohol
• Dries


  Groups that wanted to ban alcohol
• Wets


  Groups that wanted to keep the freedom to consume alcohol
• 18th Amendment


  Made illegal the "manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquors", which were defined as drinks with at least 0.5 per cent alcohol by volume
• President Herbert Hoover called Prohibition "the Noble Experiment"
• Supporters believed that problems in society caused by alcohol could be solved by government legislation
• The 1919 Volstead Act was passed by Congress to implement Prohibition
• Prohibition was very unpopular as many people believed it went against the principle of personal liberty
• Ways Prohibition was evaded


  • Bootleggers smuggled alcohol into America from abroad
  • Distillers illegally produced alcohol known as moonshine
  • Illegal bars and nightclubs known as speakeasies grew in popularity
• In New York City there were twice as many bars in 1929 than before Prohibition began
• The Wickersham Commission reported in 1929 that Prohibition was not working</b>
• Reasons Prohibition failed


  • Prohibition was almost impossible to enforce
  • Many offenders went unpunished or were even protected by enforcement officials
  • It was very difficult to prevent alcohol being smuggled into America
  • Many Americans did not support Prohibition and they still continued to drink at home or in speakeasies
• Organised crime


  The huge increase in criminal activity and the growth of powerful gangsters and gangs
• Gangsters such as Al Capone had reportedly earned around $60 million (around £700 million today) by the mid-1920s
• Towards the end of the 1920s, there had been hundreds of gang-related murders in Chicago alone
• Much of the criminal activity went unpunished as there was widespread corruption across the legal, justice and political systems
• Prohibition was finally ended in 1933