Rolling into the 1920s

Prohibition

Prohibition was passed in January of 1919, but wasn’t put into place until January of 1920. Prohibition was an amendment, making and manufacturing of alcohol illegal. Because of groups like the Women Christian Temperance Union and other religious groups, Prohibition was passed. These groups had big reasons for why they thought that Prohibition was the best thing for the United States. Prohibition was passed because these groups wanted to stop domestic abuse and the irresponsible spender. They also thought that drinking was sinful and very dangerous to people’s health. These groups thought that Prohibition would reduce crime and family instability. Prohibition was also supposed to purified politics and improve social conditions. After Prohibition passed, the United States saw it as a bad thing. Society didn’t see alcohol as a problem and just wanted to drink. With Prohibition being in place, organized crime and the mafia came out of the wood works. As more organized crime was coming up, more pro-prohibition groups were needed. Eliot Ness established the Prohibition Bureau to set penalties against black marketing and crime. Eliot Ness also was the leader of the “Untouchables”, whose mission was to take Al Capone down and fight against organized crime (to learn more about Eliot Ness and his ideas refer to the interview with Eliot Ness himself in the dropdown menu). The police also weren’t able to enforce Prohibition because some of the officers didn’t agree with them. Because of these reasons, Prohibition failed completely. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 with the 21st amendment.