Robert P. Shuler and Wayne Wheeler were two significant players during prohibition. Others were Annie Wittenmyer and Al Capone. Prohibition in the U.S. ended in 1933.
1919
Prohibition came as a result of strong pressure from various Protestant denominations and temperance groups such as the Prohibition Party and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
Organized criminals, bootleggers, moonshiners, and public officials who were corrupt were among the beneficiaries of Prohibition.
Demands from the WCTU and other womens' groups along with pressure from Protestant churches caused Prohibition.
The WCTU, among many other groups.
Criminals and corrupt public officials.
Abuses by big business
Abuses by big business
There were three main reasons for prohibition lasting so long: 1) the strengths of the groups who had campaigned for it - the church (moral reasons), industrialists (workers were more efficient when not hungover/drunk), women's groups (problems it caused to families and moral reasons), politicians (many breweries were German knock on effect from WW1), doctors (health reasons) 2) The successes of prohibition - consumption of alcohol fell not just during prohibition but for many years after, soft drinks and tea industries flourished, not as many arrests for drunkenness during Prohibition, violent crime didn't increase despite what is thought and although organised crime became more visible it existed before and after prohibition 3) The time it took to repeal the law - many strong groups had campaigned for prohibition and so it took time to find groups who were against prohibition and then time for the campaign to get started.
Highly organized and well financed pressure groups pressured for prohibition and millions of citizens were willing to give the social engineering experiment a chance to work.
Blacks, Republicans, Communists, Jews, Catholics, immigrants, and opponents of National Prohibition.