Prohibition
Ms. Grilli
Set: Bell Ringer
• Directions: Open your journals and identify
what you think speakeasy and bootlegger
means to you.
Prior Knowledge:
To test for prior knowledge I will asked them questions:
• What are some gangster movies have you
seen?
• Did any of them take place in the 20’s?
• What is Prohibition?
• Why do you think people wanted a ban on
alcohol?
• The noble experiment
of Prohibition was
introduced by the
18th Amendment,
which became
effective in January
1920.
Movie Clip
Here are four reasons
why Prohibition was
introduced:
1. National mood - 4. Moral - many
when America agreed that it
entered the war in 2. Practical - a 3. Religious -
was wrong for
1917 the national ban on alcohol the some
mood also turned would boost
against drinking consumption Americans to
supplies of
alcohol. The Anti-
important
of alcohol enjoy alcohol
Saloon League while the
argued that drinking grains such as went against
alcohol was God's will. country's young
barley.
damaging American men were at
society. war.
• The Volstead Act
implemented the
18th Amendment.
It established
illegal alcohol at
above .5%.
Movie Clip
• There weren't enough Prohibition why:
agents to enforce the law - only
1,500 in 1920.
six reasons
• The size of America's boundaries Here are
made it hard for these agents to
control smuggling by bootleggers.
had failed.
• The low salary paid to the agents Prohibition
made it easy to bribe them.
Continued
• Many Americans never
gave their support to
Prohibition and were
willing to drink in
speakeasies - bars that
claimed to sell soft drinks,
but served alcohol behind
the scenes.
continued
• Gangsters such as Al Capone made money
from organised crime.
• Protection rackets, organised crime and
gangland murders were more common during
Prohibition than when alcohol could be
bought legally.
Movie Clip
How did Prohibition lead to crime?
Prohibition created an enormous
public demand for illegal alcohol.
Gang leaders such as Al Capone
and Bugs Moran battled for
control of Chicago's illegal
drinking dens known as
speakeasies.
• The most infamous
incident was the St
Valentine's Day massacre
in 1929 when Capone's
men killed seven
members of his rival
Moran's gang while
Capone lay innocently on
a beach in Florida.
– Capone was
imprisoned for income-
tax evasion and died
from syphilis in 1947.
• It has been estimated that during
Prohibition, $2,000 million worth of
business was transferred from the
brewing industry and bars to
bootleggers and gangsters.
Al Capone
Movie Clip
Closure: Journal Entry
• How might the overall atmosphere of the
1920’s have contributed to the failure of
prohibition?
• Think About
– Changing values
– Changing lifestyles
– Fashions of the time
Homework: Writing Response to Prohibit
Alcohol or not?
• Directions: answer all three questions down below.
Your homework must be typed and is due tomorrow
at the beginning of class
– Examine the pro and cons of each position. Which do you
agree with? What other factors, if any, do you think would
influence your position?
– If you had been a legislator asked to vote for the Eighteenth
Amendment, what would you have said? Explain
– What issues might the experiment of prohibition relate to
today? Should government attempt to prohibit immoral
behavior?
