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Prohibition Party
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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 As the wave of state prohibition laws passed in the 1850s began to be repealed, prohibition agitators began to organize formally; the Prohibition Party founded in 1869 and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of 1874 represented the two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 When a second wave of state prohibition in the 1880s receded, both were superseded by the Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1893.
Quick Facts
Date:
1869 - present
Areas Of Involvement:
prohibition
temperance movement
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Prohibition Party
Prohibition Party National Prohibition Convention, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1892.

Prohibition Party

political party, United States
Written and fact-checked by
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History

Prohibition Party, oldest minor U.S. political party still in existence. It was founded in 1869 to campaign for legislation to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, and from time to time has nominated candidates for state and local office in nearly every state of the Union. Rural and small-town voters affiliated with Protestant evangelical churches provided most of the party’s support. The Prohibition Party reached the peak of its national strength in the elections of 1888 and 1892, in each of which its candidate for president polled 2.2 percent of the popular vote. After 1900 its strength was effective mainly on the local and county levels.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.