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New Ways of Life. Prohibition : the ban on the manufacture, sale & transportation of liquor anywhere in the U.S. (January 1920 ). “The slums will soon be only a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories ... Men will walk upright…women will smile & children will laugh”
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New Ways of Life Prohibition: the ban on the manufacture, sale & transportation of liquor anywhere in the U.S. (January 1920) “The slums will soon be only a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories ... Men will walk upright…women will smile & children will laugh” –Preacher Billy Sunday
Prohibition • Woman’s Christian Temperance Union had worked to ban alcoholic beverages for nearly a century • 18th Amendment (January 1919) took a year to finally go into action • In the 1920s, alcohol abuse was a serious problem & there was hope the ban would help
Evading the Law • Many Americans found ways to get around the law • People made their own booze at home • Many smuggled liquor in from Canada/ Caribbean • Smugglers were known as bootleggers as they often hid bottles of liquor in their boots
Evading the Law • Speak-easies: illegal bars which opened in nearly every city & town • Often made drinking liquor more popular than ever • To enforce the band, gov’t sent out federal Prohibition agents known as G-men who travelled across the U.S. shutting down speak-easies, breaking up illegal stills & stopping smugglers
Organized Crime • Prohibition gave a huge boost to organized crime • Every speak-easy needed a steady supply of liquor • Professional criminals or gangsters took over this job • Bootleggers earned big $$ so crime became a big business • Gangsters divided up cities & forced speak-easy owners in their territories to buy their liquor • Gangsters would use profits to bribe cops, public officials & judges
Repeal of Prohibition • Americans began to think Prohibition was a mistake • The ban reduced drinking, but never stopped it • By the end of the decade, many Americans were calling for the repeal: cancellation of Prohibition • 1933—21st Amendment : repeals the 18th Amendment • (only constitutional amend. that’s ever been repealed)
Your Turn!!! • This is a shorter unit with more basic ideas • It’s less dense than previous units • Use that to your advantage!!! • Practice those reading/ comp. skills