Prohibition Movement

1
Prohibition Movement

• By
• Brittany King
• Period 8

2
Temperance Movement

• The temperance movement had been active and
  influential in the U.S. since at least the 1830s.
  Alcohol use was associated with social ills like
  poverty, insanity and linked to criminal
  behavior.
• From the 1850s onward, the temperance movement
  focused much of its efforts on Irish and German
  immigrants.

3
A solution to the problem

• The prohibition movement's strength grew,
  especially after the formation of the Anti-Saloon
  League in 1893 and the Womans Christian
  Temperance Union.

4
Organizations against drinking

• The Anti Saloon League, founded in 1893 in
  Oberlin, Ohio began life as a state organization.
• The  Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
  was organized in 1874 in Ohio and New York by
  women. The WCTU was led by Frances E. Willard.

5
Government Involvement

• Reformers established the Prohibition Party in
  1869 to offer candidates committed to the
  prohibition cause to American voters. Prohibition
  Party advocates claimed that the nation would
  never achieve prohibition under the Democratic or
  Republican parties.

6
Government Reaction

• The League in 1916 oversaw the election of the
  two-thirds majorities necessary in both houses of
  Congress to initiate what became the Eighteenth
  Amendment to the Constitution of the United
  States.
• In 1918, Congress passed the 18th Amendment to
  the Constitution, prohibiting the manufacture,
  transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages.
• Herbert Hoover called prohibition a "noble
  experiment," but the effort to regulate people's
  behavior soon ran into trouble.

7
Drawbacks

• Enforcement of prohibition became very difficult.
  Soon, such terms as "bootlegger," "bath tub gin,"
  and "speakeasy" became household words. Gangs of
  hoodlums became more powerful as they trafficked
  in alcohol.
• Organized crime received a major boost, providing
  a product that so many wanted and were willing to
  break the law to get. Speakeasies, where one
  could drink in social settings, flourished, and
  many feared that true temperance was less likely
  to be achieved by the flaunting of such complete
  prohibition than by less invasive governmental
  regulations.
• By the 1930s, a majority of Americans had tired
  of the noble experiment, and the 18th Amendment
  was repealed.

8
21st Amendment

• Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to
  the Constitution of the United States is hereby
  repealed.
• Section 2. The transportation or importation into
  any State, Territory or possession of the United
  States for delivery or use therein of
  intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws
  thereof, is hereby prohibited.
• Section 3. This article shall be inoperative
  unless it shall have been ratified as an
  amendment to the Constitution by conventions in
  the several States, as provided in the
  Constitution, within seven years from the date of
  the submission hereof to the States by the
  Congress.

9
Summary Slide

• Prohibition Movement
• Temperance Movement
• A solution to the problem
• Organizations against drinking
• Government Involvement
• Government Reaction
• Drawbacks
• 21st Amendment