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Prohibition Era Begins
People were advertising absitinence from alcohol. These were called temperance movements. -
Prohibition
Members of Maine's Total Abstinence Society convince the state government to pass the Fifteen Gallon Law, the first prohibition law. The legislation banned the sale of alcohol in amounts smaller than 15 gallons, effectively limiting access to alcohol to the wealthy. -
Alcohol is gone?
Maine passes the "Maine law," banning the production and sale of alcohol. The law includes an exception for medicinal uses. -
Banished
By 1855, 12 other states have joined Maine in banning the production and sale of alcoholic beverages. Political tensions began to grow between the "dry" and "wet" states. -
National Prohibition Party
The National Prohibition Party is founded. In addition to temperance, the group promotes a variety of social reforms popular with progressives of the 19th century. -
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is founded. The group argues that banning alcohol will help reduce spousal abuse and other domestic problems. Later, the WCTU will focus on other social issues, including public health and prostitution, and will work to promote women's suffrage. -
Volstead Act
The U.S. Senate passes the Volstead Act, one of the first significant steps toward the passage of the 18th Amendment. The law—also known as the National Prohibition Act—prohibits "intoxicating beverages" (any drink containing more than 0.5 percent alcohol). -
18th Amendment
January 16: The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified by 36 states. Although the amendment bans the production, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, it does not actually outlaw their consumption. October 28: The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act and establishes guidelines for the enforcement of prohibition. The law goes into effect on January 17, 1920. -
Black Market
With the passage of Prohibition, a large black market develops around the country. The darker side includes gangs of bootleggers led by figures such as Al Capone, the boss of an organized crime syndicate in Chicago. -
The Dustbowl Begins
Severe drought hits the Midwestern and Southern Plains. As the crops die, the “black blizzards” begin. Dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed land begins to blow. -
Act of 1933
When Franklin Roosevelt takes office, the country is in desperate straits. He will take quick steps to declare a four-day bank holiday, during which time Congress will come up with the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, which stabilizes the banking industry and restores people’s faith in the banking system by putting the federal government behind it. -
Congress
February 20: The U.S. Congress proposes an amendment to the Constitution that would end Prohibition. December 5: Prohibition is officially repealed by the passage of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
The Dust is Spreading
Great dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl area. The drought is the worst ever in U.S. history, covering more than 75 percent of the country and affecting 27 states severely. -
Topsoil
At a meeting in Pueblo, Colorado, experts estimate that 850,000,000 tons of topsoil has blown off the Southern Plains during the course of the year, and that if the drought continues, the total area affected would increase from 4,350,000 acres to 5,350,000 acres by the spring of 1936. C.H. Wilson of the Resettlement Administration proposes buying up 2,250,000 acres and retiring it from cultivation. -
1935
The federal government forms a Drought Relief Service to coordinate relief activities. Although it is difficult for farmers to give up their herds, the cattle slaughter program helps many of them avoid bankruptcy. -
black blizzard
Black Sunday. The worst “black blizzard” of the Dust Bowl occurs, causing extensive damage. -
Soil conservation law
The SCS publishes a soil conservation district law, which, if passed by the states, would allow farmers to set up their own districts to enforce soil conservation practices for five-year periods. One of the few grassroots organizations set up by the New Deal still in operation today, the soil conservation district program recognized that new farming methods needed to be accepted and enforced by the farmers on the land rather than bureaucrats in Washington. -
Roosevelt
Roosevelt addresses the nation in his second inaugural address, stating, “I see one-third of the nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished… the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” -
Stopping the dust?
The extensive work re-plowing the land into furrows, planting trees in shelterbelts, and other conservation methods has resulted in a 65 percent reduction in the amount of soil blowing. However, the drought continues. -
RAIN
In the fall, the rain comes, finally bringing an end to the drought. During the next few years, with the coming of World War II, the country is pulled out of the Depression and the plains once again become golden with wheat. -
End of segregation
President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981 to end segregation in the Armed Services. -
Brown v Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education, a consolidation of five cases into one, is decided by the Supreme Court, effectively ending racial segregation in public schools. Many schools, however, remained segregated. -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago is brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His murderers are acquitted, and the case bring international attention to the civil rights movement after Jet magazine publishes a photo of Till’s beaten body at his open-casket funeral. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her defiant stance prompts a year-long Montgomery bus boycott. -
Freedom Riders
Throughout 1961, Black and white activists, known as freedom riders, took bus trips through the American South to protest segregated bus terminals and attempted to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters. The Freedom Rides were marked by horrific violence from white protestors, they drew international attention to their cause. -
MLK
MLK gives his I Have a Dream speech -
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday. In the Selma to Montgomery March, around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomery—the state’s capital—in protest of Black voter suppression. Local police block and brutally attack them. After successfully fighting in court for their right to march, Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders lead two more marches and finally reach Montgomery on March 25. -
Voting Rights Act
President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places. -
Civil Rights Act
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion or national origin. -
MLK Assassination
Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray is convicted of the murder in 1969.