Volstead Movement Research Paper

Chicago is the third largest city in the United States of America. In such a large city, crime rates have always been an issue in both modern times and in the past. When the Volstead Act was passed in 1919 and Prohibition was in full effect, organized crime gangs took advantage of the restriction by illegally obtaining and selling alcoholic beverages to Americans. The base of operations was very commonly in Chicago, Illinois. This would continue until 1933 when the Volstead Act was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment, which made liquor legal to import into the country once again. In this span of fourteen years, several major crime bosses rose and fell, taking violent crime rates with them. Prohibition led to their rise, which was then maintained …show more content…
Women began protesting for their rights, pushing for political and social change. The suffrage movement brought with it the temperance movement, which was also led by women. Temperance was the idea that alcoholic beverages destroy families because the men would drink too much of it and become negligent or even abusive toward their families. They felt that liquor was the sole cause of this behavior, so they tried to have it illegalized in as many states as possible. This movement was a lot more successful than many people would have expected. As a result, the Volstead Act was rationalized in 1919, placing a ban on importing and brewing alcoholic beverages and launching the Prohibition era of the United States. During this time, liquor supply quickly became limited. However, it was still legal to drink; the remaining supply at the time the law was passed was still available for sale or consumption. This caused prices for liquor to become inflated, as it was either extremely rare or it was sold illegally. In both cases, this increased the value of liquor because of how hard it was to get, whether it was legal or not. With liquor prices on the rise, many people started to take advantage of the price spike by making their own illegally. Breweries went out of business, so competition was minimal. People were forced to take whatever they could get. As a result, crime organizations took this to a new …show more content…
With this, breweries reopened and sold their liquor for lower prices legally, effectively making the illegal booze business obsolete. They could no longer sell alcohol for high prices that were profitable. As a result, organized crime turned to other methods of making money. However, they were still able to thrive off the smaller businesses. This is an impact that is seen even today as Chicago-based organized crime is still commonly seen in modern