Category:Alcohol

Alcohol is an enduring issue in Arkansas. The Little Rock Temperance Society was founded in 1831. In 1853 the State Legislature banned the sale of alcohol to slaves without owner permission. During the Civil War, the state banned the manufacture of whiskey to protect supplies of corn for military use. In 1876 the Woman's Christian Temperance Union founds the the first Arkansas chapter of that organization. A local-option law is passed by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1879 requiring that communities vote on dry county measures at least every two years. The manufacture and sale of alcohol is prohibited by state law in the Newberry Act of 1915; the shipment of liquor into the state is prohibited two years later under the "Bone Dry" Liquor Law of 1917. Arkansas becomes the twenty-seventh state to ratify the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Prohibition) in 1919. Prohibition is repealed under the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933. Two years later the General Assembly repeals the 1915 prohibition law and makes local-option elections more difficult. Liquor sales in hotels and restaurants is permitted under a General Assembly law passed in 1943. An act drafted by the Temperance League of Arkansas fails in election by an 167,578-122,252 margin in 1950. A mixed-drink bill framed by Governor Winthrop Rockefeller passes in 1969. Legislation championed by Senator Lu Hardin in 1993 made local-option votes on wet/dry counties more difficult by raising the petition requirement to 38 percent of all registered voters.

References

• Jack Schnedler, "Bottle Battles: The Never-Ending War Over Alcohol in Arkansas Plays Out in a Sprightly Exhibit and Book," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 8, 2005.

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