The Role Of Prohibition In The 1920's

Prohibition

Prohibition was a major part of the 1920s, “Prohibition created more crime. It destroyed legal jobs and created a black market in which criminals violently fought over” (Hanson). The 18th amendment was mainly created to help stop problems and abuse that was occurring in families because of alcoholic husbands. The amendment also promised to lower crime and violence rates, but instead, it increased them. Prohibition had the intention to do good but, it ended up creating many more problems for the U.S. to handle both economically and socially.

The U.S. was working on the 18th Amendment for many years before it was actually approved because they needed to ensure everyone was on board. Although their vote was for Prohibition, the senate still needed at least three-fourths of the states to agree with the proposition (Lieurance 6). On January 16, 1919, thirty-six out of forty-eight

The movies made car crashes, gunfire, and killing seem like wonderful things just because these gangsters had cool cars, girlfriends, and nice clothes (Lieurance 71). These gangsters were so glorified in the movies, but in real life, they were no joke. “During the first ten years of the 18th amendment, the murder rate climbed to 78% across the country and the arrests for drunken driving increased by 81%” (Hanson). One of the most popular and well-known gangsters in the 1920s was Al Capone (Lieurance 72). His most popular nickname was “Scarface” because when he was young he was attacked by a man named Frank Galluccio that cut his face three times with a razor (Lieurance 72). Capone was in a gang in Chicago and worked for his uncle Jim Colosimo who was a major crime boss at the time (Lieurance 73). Colosimo was very cruel and ensured that everyone knew not to mess around with him, and in Chicago alone, almost 800 gangsters died (Lieurance