ALCOHOL AND ARKANSAS
This Professional Development has a complicated history. It began when a friend told me
his grandmother spent time in the federal penitentiary during the Prohibition era. As I
shall explain, Katharina Camenzind Post of Altus, Arkansas (Franklin County) got
national coverage. I presented her story at the Arkansas Historical Association and at the
Ozarks Symposium at West Plains, Missouri. The Post Familie is still in the wine business
today. Part of that history is available on the Web page.
Next I took all my related research and presented “Prohibition on Trial: The Cases of
Katherina Camenzind Post, Parson Madison Barnes McEntire and Judge John Robertson
Willhoit” as Continuing Legal Education at the Arkansas Bar Association at Hot Springs
in 2014. Finally, I pulled together this and other material into “Alcohol and Arkansas” for
the Arkansas Curriculum Conference in 2014.
For additional material or advice, you may contact me at mdougan@astate.edu.
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Thomas v. State, 181 Ark. 316, 25 S.W. 2d 424, at 317 (1930), Per Curium: The rule is well
settled in this State that when an exception contained in a statute defines an offense and
constitutes a part thereof, an indictment for such crime must negative the exception; but when the
statute contains a proviso exempting a class therein referred to from the operation of the statute,
the indictment need not negative the proviso; for the reason that the accused in such a case must
make the exemption a ground of defense. McIntire v. State, 151 Ark. 458, 236 S.W. 619;
Hodgkiss v. State, 156 Ark. 340, 246 S.W. 506; and Tumbleson v. State, 159 Ark. 266, 251 S.W.
868.
Selected Reading and Cases
Prohibition History Arkansas
Weinstock, H.L., “The Drought of 1944; Craighead County Goes Dry,” Craighead County
Historical Quarterly, XXII (Fall 1984), 4-7.
Gage, Justin Randolph, “Vote as You Pray: The 1928 Election in Washington County,
Arkansas,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly, LXVIII (Winter 2009), 388-417.
Index Arkansas (http://arkindex.uark.edu/) contains some 41 entries mostly relating to
specific counties.
Johnson III, Ben F., John Barleycorn Must Die; The War Against Drink in Arkansas.
Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2005.
Whayne, Jeannie M., “Caging the Tiger: Race, Class, and Family in the Battle for
Prohibition in Small Town Arkansas,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly, LXXI (Spring
2012), 44-60.
Prohibition History United States
Brown, Everett Somerville, Ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970 (reprint)
Clark, Norman H., Deliver Us from Evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1976.
Coker, Joe L., Liquor in the Land of the Lost Cause; Southern White Evangelicals and
the Prohibition Movement. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
Davis, Marni, Jews and Booze; Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition. New
York: New York University Press, 2012.
Kobler, John, Ardent Spirits; The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: G. P.
Putnam’s Sons, 1973.
Okent, Daniel, Last Call; The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: Scribner, 2010.
Smith, Andrew F., Drinking History: Fifteen Turning Points in the Making of American
Beverages. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
Prohibition History Legal Studies
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Kyvig, David E., Explicit and Authentic Acts; Amending the U.S. Constitution, 17761995. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1996
____________., Repealing National Prohibition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1979
[Wickersham Report] U.S. Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, Report
on the Enforcement of the Prohibition Law of the United States, 71st Congress, 3d
session, House Document 722, 1931.
United States Supreme Court Cases
Hawke v. Smith, 253 U.S. 221 (1920)
National Prohibition Cases 253 U.S. 350 (1920)
United States v. Lanza, 260 U.S. 377 (1922)
Carroll et al v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1924)
Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)
Arkansas Cases
Lowery v. State, 135 Ark. 159, 203 S.W. 838, 1918 Still worm:
McIntire v. State, 151 Ark. 458, 236 S.W. 619,1922
Choc Beer: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/c/ch046.html
A useful introduction to a product much used in Arkansas.
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Wald v. State, 136 Ark. 372, 206 S.W. 675, 1918
Patterson v. State, 140 Ark. 236; 215 S.W. 629; 1919
Winston v. State, 149 Ark. 606; 233 S.W. 770; 1921
Hilton v. State, 174 Ark. 1179; 295 S.W. 401; 1927
Johnson v. State, 94 Okla. Crim. 33; 229 P.2d 900; 1951 Okla. Crim.
App.
State v. Kimball, et al, 162 La. 242; 110 So. 336; 1926 .
Drugs
Huggins, Laura E., Drug War Deadlock; The Policy Battle Continues. Stanford:
Hoover Institution Press, 2005
State of Arkansas v. Arthur Jerome Broadway, 269 Ark. 215; 599 S.W.2d 721; 1980
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On-line
Sources
Johns Hopkins University: Levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/catalog
Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
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Optional Writing Assignment to Challenge Your Students
The constitutional way to change basic rules is through the amending process of Article V. While
judicial review has in the past both minimized and maximized the interpretation of amendments,
most notably in the example of the Fourteenth, amendments nevertheless carry greater weight
than decisions made by a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court. Note that national prohibition
was ratified by the states and repealed by the states. Your students could write and debate their
own constitutional amendments.
While your many topics might be open to discussion, make sure students follow some basic
guidelines:
1. Is the language of the proposed amendment sufficiently clear to the general public?
2. Is the language of the proposed amendment technically accurate so as to be legally
enforceable?
3. Should each amendment specify which other parts of the Constitution it is modifying
or repealing?
4. Article V leaves open ratification by state legislatures or by conventions. What format
ought to be used?
5. Some suggestions:
Amendment I: (The Christian Nation amendment)
Sec. 1: The United States of America is hereby declared to be a Christian Nation.
Sec. 2: Upon ratification of this amendment, Congress shall within five years determine
which denomination shall receive official recognition as Christian.
Sec. 3: Upon adoption of this amendment all laws in the Old and New Testaments are
hereby declared to the Law of the Land in every state and territory under the jurisdiction of the
United States, and all punishments in those laws hereby supersede any existing laws. Congress
will determine appropriate punishments in instances where The Bible is silent.
Sec. 4: All students in the nation’s schools shall be required to recite both the Pledge of
Allegiance and join in a prayer enacted by Congress to celebrate God’s special love for
Americans.
Amendment II: (Granting citizenship to the un-born)
Sec. 1: The date in which conception occurs in the womb is hereby declared to replace
the birth date as the official beginning of life.
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Sec. 2: Congress shall enact laws requiring all females to report and be examined for any
irregularity in the menses. Upon determination of pregnancy, names shall be chosen and Social
Security and other identifying numbers shall be assigned.
Sec. 3: Every fetus is hereby granted the full privileges and immunities of citizenship.
Every miscarriage or other event leading to the demise of the fetus shall carry the same legal
processes formerly granted to birth-children.
Amendment III: (To Better Protect the Right to Keep and Bear Arms)
Sec. 1: No persons shall have their weapons taken away from them prior to conviction of
a crime.
Sec. 2: No person shall be denied the right to keep and bear arms or suffer any other legal
disability on account of a felony conviction.
Sec. 3: Neither the United States of America nor any State shall deny to any citizen the
right to carry arms at any time and in any place.
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