Prohibition and Organized Crime

The 18th Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1919. The temperance movement had finally won. I guess Carrie Nation showed up to enough saloons out in Kansas to get the vote! (You know, if she had still been alive in 1919).

Carrie Nation, "The Original Bar Room Smasher"

Prohibition, known as the "Noble Experiment", created one of the most lawless decades of our time. It also contributed to the new music, dance, fashion and movies of the time. Prohibition caused ordinary law-abiding citizens to become police-dodgers!

Organized Crime also was at it's height during the Prohibition age. With the outlawing of alcohol, it became Big Business for the underground market. Bartenders needed a product, and the mobs had what they needed. Men like Al Capone and Bugs Moran ran the city of Chicago by making millions in the alcohol business. Law enforcement tried its hardest to stop the illegal sell of alcohol but with drastic measures taken on the side of the bootleggers, bar owners and bar attenders, it was an impossible task.

"Prohibition marked the zenith of the temperance movement. In the end, however, Prohibition proved to be temperance's undoing, for Prohibition proved to be an utter fiasco. Millions of Americans continued to drink illegally, and a lucrative black market in booze fueled a shocking rise in organized crime and violence. By 1932, a large majority of the American population favored Prohibition's repeal, and Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidency in 1932 in no small part because he promised to let Americans ease the pain of the Great Depression with beer. Alcohol has been legal for American adults ever since." (Shmoop Editorial Team)

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Gender in History of Drugs in America" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.

Today in class we paired class discussions of Prohibition and Organized Crime with several video clips on the topics (found on Discovery Education Streaming). We discussed the rise of the speakeasies and the bootleggers of the 1920s.

Students connected the 1920's to today. The TV show on the History Channel, Moonshiners, has brought the topic to our TV screens in recent years. There have been many movies in recent years created on the topic too.  We also discussed the dangers of the unregulated alcohol, moonshine, of the 1920s and how many could have and did face death because of it.
One student asked the question, if it is so apparent that Prohibition didn't work in the 1920s, why is the country trying so hard to do the same thing with the war on drugs today? Good Question. There are a lot of connections to the Prohibition movement of the 192o's to today's battle the country is facing. With the recent laws changed in Colorado and Washington it will be interesting to watch how the rest of the country responds.


- To further address this issue, check out this article HERE from Scholastic and the Scientist of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The chemical components of this plant are not able to consistently be regulated. There are over 400 different chemicals in this drug - which differ from plant to plant, so it is impossible for the FDA to approve it. The FDA's job is to keep you safe and away from harm!