prohibition: Quick Facts

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A group of men in suits and hats march in an anti-prohibition parade in New York, holding large placards with protest messages and small American flags.

Prohibition Party

A poster for the Prohibition Party, 1888.Prohibition, as the extreme wing of the temperance movement, is one of the hallowed reforms from the 1840s. As the wave of state prohibition laws passed in the 1850s began to be repealed, prohibition agitators began to organize formally; the Prohibition Party founded in 1869 and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of 1874 represented the two strategic approaches. When a second wave of state prohibition in the 1880s receded, both were superseded by the Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1893.

Travel back to the Prohibition era and watch President Franklin Roosevelt sign the beer bill into law

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Topics

Today in History—May 14: The Beer Parade That Helped End Prohibition alcoholism moonshine Today in History—February 14: The Day Chicago’s Bootlegging War Spiraled Out of Control Today in History—April 21: Solved Mysteries: Al Capone’s Vault Is Opened bootlegging speakeasy temperance movement

Key People

Leader of the “Untouchables”

Eliot Ness

American crime fighter

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John Saint John

American politician