Arn Kind’s Wild and Woolly Prohibition

In 1920, Minnesotans, along with the rest of the country, were plunged into what many called “The Great Experiment.” PROHIBITION. The manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol was outlawed by the Volstead Act. Parents became bootleggers, kids smuggled illegal alcohol, and outlaws became celebrities. When Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, supporters believed it would create a better, stronger nation.

Instead it began an era of lawlessness, when famous gangsters like Al Capone rose to fame. Many Minnesotans were busted and went to jail, some at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas. Why take the risk? When WWI ended many farmers found themselves in danger of losing their farms. Meet the drys, wets, gangsters, flappers, lawmen and suffragists of America’s most colorful, complex constitutional hiccup in Minnesota’s Wild and Woolly Prohibition Days. Mr. Arn Kind, a teacher of 40 years, will come in costume to teach us about a colorful era in the history of our state.