Prohibition Ends!

 

The Prohibition era lasted from 1920 through 1933, and was an attempt to legislate morality.
World War I gave prohibitionists there opportunity to outlaw alcohol.  It was argued that the grains needed to distill alcohol were needed as food and were in short supply because of the needs of the war. This effectively shut down the country's breweries and distilleries temporarily.
A permanent ban on the sale, transportation, importing, and exporting of alcoholic beverages was enacted by passage of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by Congress in December, 1917.  Proponents of the so called "noble experiment" claimed that the nation's health would improve dramatically without alcohol, and that crime would drop. It was also claimed that other industries, like dairy, would prosper as other types of beverages increased in popularity to fill the void left by the absence of alcohol. Juvenile delinquency was also supposed to be virtually eliminated, and the average workers productivity was also supposed to increase, leading to an increase in economic prosperity for the nation.  
 Instead of promoting the nation's health and hygiene, the opposite was true as the illegal manufacture of alcohol filled part of the void, and those illegal products were often dangerous or much higher in alcohol content than the beer, wines and spirits they replaced. Crime also increased, since illegal activity was required to market the illegal alcohol. Criminal activity became organized and led to the rise of powerful crime syndicates that used murder, and the bribery of public officials and even law enforcement officers, to move large quantities of the illegal substance. Drug use increased, with drugs taking the place of alcohol. Worker productivity did not increase. Jails filled with people convicted of relatively minor infractions of the alcohol ban. Enforcement of the ban cost millions of dollars. Congress repealed the 18th Amendment with the passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933. As a result of the legalization of alcohol, crime was actually reduced and many new jobs were created as the liquor industry expanded. This was especially important in the Depression years that began with the Stock Market crash in 1929 and lasted into the late 1930s.

There was no longer any NATIONAL prohibition of alcohol, but states could still prohibit it if they wanted to, and many wanted to. Even today. In the map here, the red counties are dry; the yellow are classified as semi-dry, with various prohibitions in effect. Mississippi was the last state to end statewide prohibition (1966) but as you can see, some of their counties have retained some degree of the ban.


Assignment:  I want you to play sociologist for a day.  I want you to research and explore why the states/counties that are semi-dry/dry still prohibit or have some sort of restrictions existing today.  Are there socio-economic factors that come into play?  Religious reasons?  Poverty?  Family traditions/customs?  Unemployment?    What does maybe the culture of these states/regions suggest as to the status of current laws?  Include links to all resources used.  I look forward to your findings in a 400 word or more report.  Thank you:)