Prohibition
• Goals of prohibition – Eliminate drunks – Eliminate abuse caused by drunks – Get rid of saloons where gambling and
prostitution thrived – Prevent missed word and accidents caused by
drunkenness • 18th Amendment was mostly ignored
– Especially among coastal cities • Only 5% of New Yorkers observed the law
• Prior to 18th Amendment bootleggers were people who hid liquor in a flask in their boots
• After 18th Amendment referred to people who supplied alcohol – Made their own – Imported illegally from
Canada or the Caribbean
Bootlegging
Speakeasies
• Illegally operated bars • Bars flourished during
Prohibition more than before the law was passed – Washington D.C.
• 300 bars before Prohibition • 700 bars after Prohibition
• Entrance to a speakeasy was heavily guarded and often had false fronts
• A variety of new words were coined in the 1920s relating to alcohol and Prohibition. Here are a few:
• Moonshiners: Producers of homemade distilled spirits
• Rumrunners: Alcohol smugglers • Bootleggers: Alcohol distributors • Bathtub Gin: Gin made in the
bathtub, because the preferred style of bottle didn't fit in the kitchen sink!
• Slang Words for Alcohol: • coffin varnish • white mule • horse liniment • monkey rum • panther sweat • rot gut • tarantula juice
• Slang Words for Getting Drunk: • oiled • fried • tight • wet • blotto • corked • stewed • tanked • lit up like a Christmas tree
New Words in the 1920s
• Prohibition led to the increase in organized crime
• Reasons – Complex process of obtaining alcohol – HUGE profits
Organized Crime
• Problems occurred when groups tried to expand their business and clashed with other groups
• Gang wars became common as a result • Bootlegging gangs often branched out into
other illegal activities – Gambling – Prostitution – Racketeering
Racketeering
• Bribing government officials and police officers to turn their backs on illegal activity
• Forcing business owners to pay for “protection” – If not, killed or business
destroyed
Al Capone
• Nicknamed “Scar Face” • Worked his way up organized
crime by killing people • Had most government officials
in his back pocket – Made $60 million/year from
bootlegging • Ultimately sent to jail for tax
evasion
Fundamentalism
• Growing conflict between societal trends and religion
• Challenges to religious beliefs – Growing science and technological advances – WW I – Movement among scholars who promoted the
belief that the Bible was written by humans and therefore subject to error
• In response religious movement began called fundamentalism
• Argued that the Bible is inspired by word of God so it cannot contain errors – Every word should be taken literally
Scopes Trial
• Tennessee banned evolution from being taught in public schools in 1925
• Science teacher John Scopes challenged the law – Cited it denied him religious freedom
• Trial brought together the two most famous lawyers of the time – William Jennings Bryan – Clarence Dow
• Drew massive attention • First trial ever broadcast on radio in
America • Judge instructed jury to decide only whether
Scopes had taught evolution – They did and he was fined $100
Growing Racial Tensions • “Red Summer”
– Summer of 1919 saw massive mob violence between whites and African Americans
– Especially in Chicago • Fighting reached height at a beach in
Chicago – Black boy was hit with a rock for swimming
into a white only section and drowned – Resulted in a riot that lasted for days
• Almost 40 people died • Over 500 injured
Klan Revival
• Mostly eliminated during Reconstruction Period
• Revived by Atlanta preacher Col. Simmons in 1915
• By 1924 membership had grown to 4 million
• Refocused mission to defend their culture against anyone not a native-born, white, Protestant
• Targeted – African Americans – Catholics – Jewish People – Immigrants
• In 1925 head of the Klan was sentenced to life in prison for assaulting a girl who later killed herself
• Shocked the nation to realize extend of Klan’s abuses
• By 1927 the Klan began to diminish once again