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Perception Changed: Prohibition In The 1920's

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America: A Perception Changed
Prohibition, the age of ‘dry states’, illegal drinking, and, all in all, the height of organized criminal activity; veterans joined the crime as a last option, vulnerable humans ran the streets unemployed and looking for a way to drown their sorrows. Organized criminals defiantly took advantage of the “Roaring Twenties” misfortunes, they provided illegal alcohol to the people, gave jobs to the unemployed, who needed the lucrative labor, and drove the number of alcoholics up the wall in droves. “The arrests under the Volstead Act from 1920- 1929 reached 550,307 with 1928 having the highest at 75,307 arrests” (Volstead). With Mafia members, like Al Capone, taking the cake on headliners, the people of America slowly …show more content…

Alcohol, in the 1920’s, was something many people took a great joy, but they only did so because it was illegal. If someone is told ‘Whatever you do, don’t think about a pink elephant’ the person will almost always end up picturing a pink elephant in their head. This same principle applies to prohibition; the law made it so that alcohol was illegal: “the researchers call this the ‘forbidden fruit hypothesis,’ based upon previous research that has demonstrated that people find things more desirable when they off-limits or forbidden. There’s something in human nature that wants what it can’t have” (Grohol). Organized criminals such as Al Capone and John Dillinger were popular, both in the papers and in their under life as part of the Mafia, were looked upon with a reverence not ever seen among common people to criminals. “To many people, he (Al Capone) seemed like a real-life Robin Hood, opening soup kitchens for the unemployed and giving large sums to charity” (Sandbrook). Prohibition changed the way people saw these …show more content…

Veterans were in need of the money they were promised by the government but, the government didn’t give it until hundreds, if not thousands of veterans were looking for a quick way to earn money (i.e. organized crime). The people of the prohibition age already looked upon the criminals in organized crime as heroes because they supply their need, but when the veterans, the war heroes that saved them from communism and gave them freedom, started taking jobs with the Mafia and, other organized crime organizations, the people assumed that it wasn’t so bad. “Organized crime is lucrative” (Organized Crime) so veterans that needed money were basically forced into the only jobs available to them. The government definitely didn’t help prohibition by avoiding paying the vets, if anything, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, with the end term being the fact that prohibition

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By 1932, Americans had reversed the approval and disapproval making the disapproval rating had gone higher. Americans disapproved the prohibition because the criminality and murder went up, business’ were going down and it was impossible to enforce no alcohol. The rate of criminals went up leading to more murders when the Prohibition was enforced. Many criminals such as gangsters, racketeers, bootleggers, and dope sellers got “helped” out by prohibition. Especially in the Great Depression, were alcohol was even more wanted.

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The creation of illegal establishments like speakeasies would be the just the beginning of crime in the 1920s. Bootlegging, the illegal sell of alcohol became commonplace. Gangsters rose to power on the streets of cities like Chicago and New York. Criminals like Al Capone, and Charles “Lucky’ Luciano became household names. Prohibition, intended to fix America’s alcohol problem, only made it worse.

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Thus, with the thousands of crimes committed during the Prohibition era, many were able to slip into the cracks, but now these stories are being discovered. These events greatly affected the 1920’s era by demonstrating the effects of the prohibition, as well as providing an example of how far we’ve come with investigation and handling crime in the United States. Work Cited Kelly , Debra . “10 Unsolved Mysteries From Early 20th-Century Organized Crime.” Listverse, 15 Feb. 2015, listverse.com/2015/02/15/10-unsolved-mysteries-from-early-20th-century-organized-crime/. Lowth , Marcus .

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However, in the 1920s, because alcohol was a part of people’s daily lives, people didn’t stop consuming it. Alcohol consumers with no respect for the law simply decided to buy, sell, and drink alcohol illegally. People who sold alcohol made a lucrative business out of it. Al Capone, for example, who was a famous American gangster, earned $60,000,000 annually by selling illegal liquor (Al Capone). Prohibition did not stop people from drinking, and criminals were making the money the sale.

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Picture this: its the roaring twenties, people were ecstatic about the war being over, but had no idea that there was about to be a cultural civil war among America starting with prohibition. From the end of nineteen eighteen to nineteen thirty three prohibition had its impractical moments and was controverted , and in the end, it became one of the most prominent moments in U.S history J.J Little explains that the Eighteenth Amendment made drinking and selling alcohol illegal(598). The meaning of prohibition was to diminish the drinking of alcohol, and therefor the crime rate would plummet, including poverty, death rates, and the condition of life would become better also boosting the economy. Sadly, this was no help at all (Addiction History 1165). The FPB (Federal Prohibition Bureau) began only to over look the Volstead Act and made sure it was

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The mobsters way of profit was found through robbery, bootlegging racketeering and extortion. Through the 1920s, there was a constant grip on society from the mobster’s hand that created a tight hold on the city’s ergonomics.(Infamous) The drinking of alcohol was illegal in the 1920s, which caused many Americans to develop hidden bars or speakeasies to drink their alcoholic beverages. While the Eighteenth “Amendment officially” banned alcohol production, many states “already” had laws prohibiting alcohol.

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Prohibition was around in the 1920's. It caused many problems such as organized crime and corruption in the courts system. There were many judges and cops that would take money to look the other way and let the bootleggers shuffle their inventory around the cities. Many people such as Al Capone made millions off of prohibition. In the beginning it was thought that prohibition would create a society with less alcoholism, more morale people, and less crime.

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There was also the problem of some police departments working with “bootleggers”, and allowing well-known businesses that sold alcohol to continue operating without any consequences (Rose, K. 1986, pg.292). The most challenging part of enforcing prohibition laws in the 1920’s was that the mass majority of the people were against it,

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Throughout history, there have been many ups and downs within American society. One period of time in which American economy was undoubtedly booming was the 1920s. The 1920s were a such an important period that there was even a name to define it - the Golden Age. As the Prohibition progressed, public disregard for the Prohibition led to significant changes in American culture. In addition to this, Prohibition enforcement was also occurring.

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Prohibition during the 1920s taught us that dictating individual choice or imposing your own set of morals on others does not work. In fact, during prohibition things became worse. People turned to the black market in order to purchase alcohol and the mafias filled this void. The mafia grew since they were producing their own alcohol and selling it. This led to increased violence and murders by mafia groups trying to control territories.

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The Mafia are some of America's favorite bad guys. They are the subject of countless television series, movies, and books. When people hear the term Mafia or Mob, they may often think of the violent and ruthless tactics organized crime would use to get what they wanted. What many do not realize is that, from the early to mid-twentieth century, the Mafia’s influence allowed organized crime to have a hand in many aspects of American culture that people still enjoy today. Prohibition arose out of the Progressive Era at the end of the eighteenth century.

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Prohibition’s Failure In the 1920s, Al Capone was a name that inspired fear into the hearts of all of Chicago. His reign as crime boss over Chicago came because of a single government act. This act was the Eighteen Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, commonly known as Prohibition. The common goal for the law was that alcohol related crime would go down and the problems of drunks who did not take care of or provide for their families would be eradicated.

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Although more than two-thirds of the Senate, two-thirds of the House of Representatives, and three-fourths of the state legislatures approved Prohibition, after fourteen years, America changed its stance of the situation involving intoxicating liquors. An “intoxicating liquor” can be defined as any beverage that contains alcohol. In early 1920, the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act, which were passed by Congress, prohibited the manufacturing, selling, transporting, possession, and use of alcoholic beverages. One reason for the approval of prohibition is that drinking was thought of the major reason behind some of America’s serious problems, which included corruption, child abuse, crime, and unemployment. Although it can be thought of as “morally correct,” Prohibition failed for the following reasons: it increased crime rates, led to a rise in homicides, the attempt to enforce prohibition laws,

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One six-hundred-member ‘synagogue’ turned out to be a laundry” (Woog 51). Many church officials and other people of importance and with access to the church were often attempting to make a little money on the side, through selling sacramental wine instead of using it in church ceremonies. ” Prohibition gave rise to organized crime in America by creating an atmosphere in which criminal gangs, which until then had been loosely organized and in small scale, could grow into large, organized crime networks” (Woog 52) Because of the crime associated with the illegal making of alcohol many officials say Prohibition did not in fact help with the crimes associated with alcohol, but made it worse. “Hundreds of thousands of gallons of alcohol were distilled for this market but never reached offshore destinations.” (Woog 50).

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Prohibition seemed like a good idea, in concept, but the citizens were much more protective over their alcohol. Once-peaceful area were reduced to violent, aggressive prisons. People wanted their alcohol, and they would stop at nothing to get it back. Prohibition was negative for 1920’s society, causing devastating effects such as an increase in organized crime, encouraged the creation of poisonous moonshines, and led to the corruption of public officials. After the 18th Amendment was passed, consequently making the sale, distribution and production of alcohol illegal, organized crime skyrocketed.

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