Prohibition
(18th Amendment)
Outlaws the sale,
manufacture and
transportation of
intoxicating beverages
Introduction to Prohibition
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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 Agents
B. 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
Al Capone
Detroit police inspecting
equipment found in a hidden
underground brewery during
the prohibition era.
Chicago gangster during
Prohibition who controlled
the “bootlegging” industry.
Elliot Ness, part of
the Untouchables
Agent with the U.S. Treasury
Department's Prohibition Bureau
during a time when bootlegging
was rampant throughout the
nation.
End of Prohibition
• VIII. 21st Amendment- 1933
Repeal of 18th Amendment