Speakeasies In The 1920's

Civil disobedience is inevitable, when the government violates the autonomy and ignores the societal welfare of the people. Similarly, in the 1920s, the enactment of Prohibition restricted the personal liberties of the american population and worsened economy to a certain degree. The failure of Prohibition to improve good family morals and the quality of life caused growing disdain for its implementation. At the time, organized crime became the embodiment of protest against the government, because of the money that mafias made selling illegal alcohol, which opposed Prohibition. As a result, the public viewed these organizations as heroes, due mostly in part to their actions against the government and the benefits foreseen from joining. Gang

Speakeasies, used to illegally sell alcohol during the Prohibition era, were hidden underground establishments that were mainly associated with gangs that supplied the liquor and were synonymous to Prohibition. These establishments were rampant all over the country “In New York City alone, there were 35,000 illegal drinking establishments, as estimated by the New York City police department” (Lerner 138). Assuming that there could have been more Speakeasies, as these estimates were from court cases since the people involved did not keep record “it is safe to say that speakeasies were extremely plentiful in almost every corner of the United States during Prohibition” over all proving its prominence within the country (Collins 24). Additionally these establishments had become as popular as they were at the time because of the rebellion sought out from entering a Speakeasy. Opposition to the prohibition laws reached its peak when blue collar workers and business owners alike became friends in order to drink and avoid the law, since it became “fashionable to flout the Prohibition laws “ (speakeasies) The staggering amount of Speakeasies became a symbol of support for gang culture as well as opposition to the government. Since organized crime was able to thrive from any normal person participating in a Speakeasy, the integration of gang culture within the community was shown from the support given to them. Moreover, Gang culture became popular in the sense that speakeasies gave people the means to oppose the law and protest it in their own