Prohibition : When You Say No

Starting in 1826 with the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, the ideals of the prohibition were wide spread. The effort to ban alcohol reached a high with the progressive movement as well as the changing American culture. The roaring 20's brought along a time of excess and the people were convinced that alcohol was a threat to the health and virtue of American womanhood. Headed by the Protestants, the movement began to gain traction, and in 1917, Congress approved the amendment to ban alcohol.

What many did not realize was that a simple ban was not enough to stop people from consuming alcohol. Congress had failed to outline how the law would be enforced, and following presidents, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, were conservative presidents who believed in a small government. People began to find ways to access alcohol, regardless of whether the means were legal or not. Establishments such as speakeasies became prominent and people began to smuggle alcohol from neighboring nations, Canada and Mexico, who had not passed a similar ban.

Even before the ban was in place, many people began to realize just how beneficial the ban could be, especially the Mafia. Very early on, they began to stock up on alcohol and made vast fortunes off of the selling of the illegal drink. Bootlegging, the process of illegally manufacturing alcohol, became prominent within the Mafia. Through this rise of the Mafia, violence ensued and developed into what many know as the St Valentines Massacre, in which a group of men dressed up as policemen and killed a group of men in an enemy gang.

When the end to Prohibition came with the election of FDR as president, the Mafia did not disappear. The power they had garnered during the prohibition allowed them to be prominent figures in society and entrench themselves in other illegal activities including drug trafficking and loan sharking. They went as far as to infiltrate labor unions and other legitimate industries. The number of people in the Mafia continued to grow and it seemed like there was no end to it's power.

However, in the 1960s, US Attorney General Robert Kennedy took it upon himself to address the rising threat of organized crime. He pressured the FBI into intensifying efforts against the Mafia and an electronic spying network was set up. In 1963, with the capture of Joseph Valachi, a breakthrough occurred. Unlike other members of the Mafia, Valachi broke the code of silence, informing the officials about the true nature of organized crime and painting a clearer picture of how to deal with the Mafia as a whole.

With the passing of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the government was finally able to take down the Mafia. The act allowed the officials to "attack criminal enterprises on a broad front, stripping them of their leadership and sources of both illicit and legitimate revenue in one massive prosecution". The history of the Mafia came to an end, showing an end to one of the results of the prohibition.

Many people have come to realize that the prohibition ultimately was not effective in achieving it's goal and in fact, made the drive to have access to alcohol even larger. It leaves room how America would have fared without going to such an extreme regarding alcohol and how the Mafia would have taken root.


Sources :

http://www.history.com/topics/the-demise-of-the-mafia
http://www.history.com/topics/prohibition
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/aug/26/lawless-prohibition-gangsters-speakeasies