At midnight on January 16, 1920, saloons closed throughout the land, climaxing a 50 year campaign to forbid the use of liquor within our boundaries.  Prohibition-the banning of manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages had its roots in the Progressive Reform Movement of the late 19th and early 20th century.  Progressives believed that human beings could become better people if they could eliminate alcohol from the society in which they lived.  This mindset and the fact that we were involved in World War I helped create a National law that sought to outlaw alcohol in the United States.   
To the Prohibition Blues