From the January 19, 2020, Chicago Tribune by David Crary, AP.
LESSONS LINGER A CENTURY AFTER ILL-FATED DRY ERA BEGAN.
In this era of bottomless mimosas, craft beers and liquors, ever-present happy hours, it's hard to think that 100 years ago the United States imposed a nationwide ban on the production and sale of all types of alcohol.
The Prohibition Era, which lasted from January 17, 1920, until December 1933, is now viewed as a failed experiment that glamorized illegal drinking, but there are several intriguing parallels in current times.
Americans are consuming more alcohol per capita now than at any time leading up to Prohibition, when alcohol opponents successfully made the case that excessive drinking was ruining family life.
But, today, more states are moving toward decriminalizing marijuana (and even selling it in stores with high taxes)
And, in this time of heightened racial division of today, Prohibition offers a poignant history lesson on how restrictions targeted Blacks and recent immigrants more harshly than in white communities. That treatment eventually caused many of these people to join the Democratic Party, which engineered Prohibition's Repeal.
--CootDrink
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