Regulating Society

The Volstead Act, the law that enforced the 18th Amendment, which established prohibition in the U.S., was more strict than most Americans had anticipated. Many believed that beer and light wines would be excluded from the amendment. They were wrong. Learning Objective: Students will analyze how the Volstead Act prohibited the manufacture, sale, and consumption of ALL alcoholic beverages.

While the federal government wanted states to enact their own dry laws, many local governments were reluctant, because they didn’t have the money to pay for the enforcement of them.  Learning Objective: Students will understand how Prohibition became a fight between the federal and state governments.

In 1924, the Boston Herald held a contest for a word that captured the nation's hypocrisy over Prohibition. Learning Objective: Students will understand what scofflaws are and determine if there are still scofflaws in effect today.

Mabel Walker Willebrandt was the Assistant Attorney General of the United States under President Harding. She was a young lawyer, and in charge of the Prohibition enforcement policy.Learning Objective: Students will analyze the impact that Mabel Walker Willebrandt had on the Prohibition movement.

The question of Prohibition had gained strong momentum by the first decade of the 20th century. The issue was one of the most controversial in the history of the United States, rivaled only by slavery the century before. However, the level of Americans’ dedication to its enactment and the degree to which alcohol should be prohibited varied greatly among the population. In this gallery, students will role-play advocacy groups deliberating issues and policy options on the question of Prohibition. Lesson Objectives: Students will: Describe the history of alcohol in the United States and trace the connection between Prohibition and temperance movements and the change in strategy from advocating moderation to government regulation. Identify the significance of the local saloon to immigrants and the working poor and analyze how the Anti-Saloon League’s temperance movement politicized the prohibition of alcohol.

In the activities contained within this gallery, students will analyze video segments and primary source images to understand the challenges of enforcing Prohibition. Learning Objectives: Students will: Analyze how enforcement of Prohibition became a fight between the states and federal government and Americans vs. Americans; Analyze how the federal government used legislation and federal enforcement to violate the constitutional ban on illegal search and seizure;  Understand how some states refused to enforce Prohibition laws without federal funding.

The activity within this gallery explores the bootlegging industry that flourished during Prohibition. Students will view four video segments to gain an understanding of the origins of bootlegging and analyze the federal government's response.  Learning Objectives: Students will: Understand and analyze how the bootlegging business began and continued during Prohibition; Understand and analyze the federal government’s retaliation against the bootlegging industry

From 1920-1933, the United States was a dry country. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the making, transportation, and sale of alcohol. Americans went to illegal bars, called “speakeasies,” on the sly to drink.  Learning objectives: Students will: Understand how Prohibition created an underground club scene that started in New York City and eventually proliferated to the rest of the United States; Analyze how Prohibition led to a social and cultural revolution for women.

From 1920-1933, the United States was a dry country. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the making, transportation, and sale of alcohol. The law, as explained in the Ken Burns’ film Prohibition, “turned law-abiding citizens into criminals.” It also proved to be a lucrative business venture for gangsters and bootleggers, who took over once legitimate businesses to illegally supply alcohol to Americans. The prominence and power of gangsters during Prohibition grew as a result. Learning Objectives Students will: Analyze how Prohibition lead to an increase and overall organization of crime in America; Determine if organized crime tactics are still being used today by individuals and big business.

Roy Olmstead, a Seattle police officer, turned to bootlegging during Prohibition and was known to provide the best product on the west coast. He used bribery instead of violence, and was known as "The Good Bootlegger." Learning Objective: Students will understand how average citizens, even policemen, were able to take part in bootlegging.

In the activities contained within this media gallery, students will examine the text of the Fourth Amendment and its protections against unreasonable searches and seizures and explore where these protections are not always granted. Learning Objectives Students will: Form conclusions regarding how individual rights frequently clash with the need for law enforcement to collect evidence and punish individuals who have violated the law. Identify the ways in which social mores and attitudes regarding interpretation of law and the Constitution change over time.

In this activity, students will examine and debate several laws that regulate personal behavior.

Students will role-play advocates of different interest groups who have strong opinions and serious interest in the Prohibition issue.

While millions of Americans stopped drinking during Prohibition, those who did drink, women as well as men, drank more. Learning Objectives: Students will: Understand how Prohibition caused an increase in drinking in some Americans; Understand how Prohibition created a black market for liquor and led to severe health complications for many Americans.

Prohibition led to a social, cultural, and sexual revolution for women in the 1920s. Women were drinking at speakeasies, mixing more with men, and flappers broke from the repression of their suffragette mothers' time.

Lois Long—pen name "Lipstick"—wrote about speakeasies for the New Yorker. Women who could not afford to live the decadent lifestyle got to experience it vicariously by reading about her exploits.

In the summer of 1926, Al Capone grew in notoriety as gang violence in Chicago escalated. The federal government announced that illegal income was taxable. Capone never filed an income tax return, and told the IRS he didn't make enough money. By 1931, he was indicted for tax evasion. His trial set off a media frenzy.

The rise of organized crime was a drawback of Prohibition that the drys had not seen coming. With the Volstead Act, the law that enforced the 18th Amendment, ordinary criminals became wealthy by selling illegal alcohol.

On February 14, 1929, in what came to be called the "Valentine's Day Massacre," George Moran's gang is gunned down in cold blood and Al Capone is thought to have ordered the hit.

In the activities contained within this gallery, students will explore the life of Al Capone and how he used Prohibition to become one of the most notorious mobsters in American history. Learning Objective Students will analyze how Al Capone capitalized on lax regulation of Prohibition enforcement and became one of the biggest names in organized crime in the nation.

George Remus, a successful criminal attorney in Chicago, became the king of the bootleggers with his operation.

Seattle's Bootlegging King, Roy Olmstead, was caught in a wiretap and sentenced to four years hard labor. While his conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court, he received a pardon in 1935.

A case study activity examining the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.

George Remus, King of the Bootleggers, is caught by the government, then put on trial for murdering his wife.

Don Ward's father was a bootlegger. Listen to his first-person acount of his father's business, and hiding illegal alcohol in Arlington Cemetery. Learning Objective: Students will understand how many bootlegging raids were unsuccessful due to poor legal enforcement in many cities and states.

Zeke Alpern's father, Lou, owned three "cordial stores" in New York City, where he sold illegal alcohol during Prohibition.

Rum Row started at the tip of Maine and continued down to the coast of Florida. Boats waited three miles off the coastline until night to bring to the shore their cache of illegal alcohol. Learning Objective: Students will analyze how bootleggers took advantage of the nation’s many miles of unguarded coast line to funnel alcohol into the streets of many coastal cities.

Donald Ward talks about his father's bootlegging business, which took him into the United States Capitol Building. Learning Objective: Students will understand that the many pro-Prohibition politicians in Washington D.C. did not adhere to alcohol consumption regulations.

Federal Prohibition agents put their lives on the line to enforce the new laws and close down moonshine operations in places like rural Kentucky.

New York City had the most illegal speakeasies, and it was the toughest place to crack down on drinking.