This activity will help students understand why some Americans supported Prohibition (a constitutional ban on the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages from 1920-1933) and why the law was ultimately a failure.

In the clip “Moral Disaster,” viewers see how some Americans viewed jazz music as a ‘virus’ that was corrupting young people living in urban areas. These people believed jazz music and the dance crazes that accompanied it were to blame for high alcohol consumption and caused “immoral” behaviors that disrupted the nuclear family. The ratification of the eighteenth amendment legally implemented Prohibition and was meant to cease these “immoral” behaviors.

However, the clip an “An Unenforceable Law” demonstrates just how difficult it was to enforce Prohibition. The excitement and chaos of the 1920s could not be quelled. Bootleggers smuggled alcohol into the country, and jazz musicians performed in secret speakeasies where people danced, drank, and embraced the changing times.

“Omnipresent Speakeasies” conveys just how fast this underground and secret nightlife culture grew. During Prohibition, Harlem itself housed more than five hundred speakeasies.

Objectives: Students will be able to….

• Explain arguments in support of Prohibition as well as identify reasons for its failure.

About the Author:

Niles Mattier is originally from Boston, MA. He attended Syracuse University in New York for undergraduate majoring in History and Education Studies. After graduating from Syracuse University, Niles returned to Boston where he currently teaches 5th grade U. S. History and is pursuing a Master of Education at Boston University.