Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Prohibition
The term, prohibit, means to “forbid by authority.” In our course of study, what
became prohibited, was alcohol. The “back story” on this issue is that in the late 1800s,
women’s groups had formed for the purpose of bringing about certain reforms to
American society.
Some people had come to believe that the consumption of alcoholic beverages was
leading to immoral behavior and causing neglect and conflict within the family unit. As
the result, “temperance” societies cropped up across the U.S., which ended up
launching a full-fledged movement.
The ultimate goal of the temperance movement was to have alcohol banned in the U.S.
Eventually, Congress gave the temperance movement what it wanted when, in 1920, it
passed the 18th Amendment to the Constitution (often simply referred to as the
Prohibition Amendment).
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Volstead Act
Even though the 18th Amendment banned Alcohol in the U.S., the alcohol ban was
widely ignored, especially in larger cities, along the coasts, and in the upper Midwest.
This act of Congress was passed in 1919, and it gave government law enforcement
agencies the authority to enforce the 18th Amendment.
Bootleggers, people who broke the law by manufacturing and distributing alcoholic
beverages began producing a variety of “brew.” Since many Americans chose to ignore
the law, liquor was in high demand. As the result, bootleggers were able to make quite
a profit on what they produced.
A variation on this theme was the smuggling of alcoholic products into the U.S.,
primarily from Canada, and from the Caribbean.
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Speakeasies – the name of illegal private clubs that operated as “underground” bars
and saloons. Many speakeasy owners paid bribes to law enforcement in order to keep
from being shut down and arrested.
Organized Crime
The huge profits that could be realized through involvement in any aspect of alcohol
manufacture, distribution and/or sale, attracted gangs which in turn ultimately grew into
“organized crime” syndicates.
One of the most notorious crime bosses was Al Capone. He was able to take control of
much of the illegal activities in Chicago, which included the distribution and sale of
alcohol, prostitution, and gambling, all of which were illegal.
Capone’s organization grew to be quite sophisticated. He was able to climb his way to
the top of the crime business by murdering his opponents and by bribing law
enforcement and public officials. At the height of his crime days, it was estimated that
he was bringing in $60,000,000 per year!
The government finally arrested Capone on income tax evasion. He was convicted and
sentenced to prison.
Before Prohibition, the U.S. government had been receiving tax revenue from all
alcoholic beverages purchased in the U.S. During Prohibition, this tax money
disappeared because “legal” alcoholic beverages were not being sold. The illegal
booze was sold and never taxed!
During the Great Depression, government officials thought that the tax revenue stream
could be restarted if only alcohol was once again legal…and so the 21st Amendment
was born.
Evolutionists began to believe that man “evolved” over millions of years, from apes.
Scopes claimed that his right to free speech allowed him to teach the theory of
evolution, but he was subsequently arrested.
This event turned into one of the biggest legal cases of the decade. Two of America’s
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most prominent lawyers, Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan, squared off
to argue the case in court. Bryan argued in favor of the fundamentalist position, while
Darrow defended Scopes on the basis of the 1st Amendment’s freedom of speech
component.
After deliberating for only a matter of minutes, a jury found Scopes guilty, and a judge
fined him $100.00. This case came to represent a larger than life philosophical battle
between “Fundamentalists” and “Modernists.’
Eventually, Garvey got the idea to get a “Back to Africa” movement going. He
believed that African Americans could relocate themselves back to Africa, and then
establish a new society in the “Motherland” of Africa, that would be free of the
discrimination of America.
Garvey was never able to accomplish this goal. As the result of a scandal that he had
misappropriated other peoples “Back to Africa” money, he was jailed and ultimately
deported back to Jamaica in 1927.
End of Lecture
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