April 7th marks the anniversary of the modification of the Volstead Act. That’s the date in 1933 when
beer became the first alcoholic beverage to be made legal since Prohibition was implemented in 1920. The officially was ratified Dec 5, 1933.
In the words of the late President FDR “What America needs now is a drink”. So, raise a beer mug and let’s celebrate the freedom to enjoy a frosty tall one!
10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Prohibition Supporters
1. So convinced were they that alcohol was the cause of virtually all crime that, on the eve of Prohibition, some towns actually sold their jails.
2. Early temperance writers often insisted that because of their high blood alcohol content, "habitual drunkards" could spontaneously combust and burn to death from inside.
3. One temperance "scientific authority" implied that inhaling alcohol vapors might lead to defective offspring for at least three generations.
4. Because the temperance movement taught that drinking alcohol was sinful, it was forced to confront the contrary fact that Jesus drank wine. Its solution was to insist that Jesus drank grape juice rather than wine.
5. Although Prohibition was repealed seven decades ago, there are still hundreds of dry counties across the United States today.
6. Temperance Leader Lucius Manlius Sargent tried to get secondary schools, colleges and universities to eliminate all references to alcoholic beverages in ancient Greek and Latin texts.
7. During Prohibition, temperance activists hired a scholar to rewrite the Bible by removing all references to alcohol beverage.
8. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) strongly supported Prohibition and its strict enforcement.
9. Prohibitionists advocated strong measures against those who did not comply with Prohibition—one suggestion included having the government distribute poisoned alcohol beverages through bootleggers and even acknowledged that several thousand Americans would die as a result.
10. Prohibitionists didn't give up easily. They even tried to enforce Prohibition for as long as ten years after its repeal by the Twenty-first Amendment.
Labels: prohibition, repeal of prohibition, volstead act
