Prohibition Hangover- Part 6: Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Michael Lerner, in his book "Dry Manhattan:  Prohibition in New York City," says courtrooms and jails were so overcrowded that judges began accepting plea bargains, "making it a common practice in American jurisprudence for the first time."

Anti-immigrant sentiment was a factor behind Prohibition, partly because of record-high immigration in the preceding decades.

Saloons in immigrant neighborhoods were prime targets because middle-class white Protestants viewed them as political and social danger zones.

"Often the political machines run by the bosses were based in these saloons, or used them for extending favors," Aaron Cowan said.  "So there was a concern about political corruption, changing social values, immigrants learning radical politics."

Prohibition's start in 1920 coincided with a major expansion of the Ku Klux Klan, which supported the ban on alcohol as it waged its anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic and racist activities.

The Volstead Act "provided a way for the Klan to legitimize its 100% Americanist mission -- it could target the drinking of those they perceived to be their enemies," McGirr said.

--CootDrinking