At our March 16 meeting, Dr. Michael Green, a UNLV professor and historian, will speak about how Las Vegas handled Prohibition, which made the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages illegal.
Federal Prohibition ran from 1920 through 1933. But Las Vegas had a tolerant approach to gambling, girls and gin. With Prohibition, the making of moonshine and prescribing of “medicinal” alcohol became part of the scene here, as well as in many U.S. communities.
Eventually local authorities in Nevada stopped enforcing Prohibition, leaving the job to federal agents, who made periodic raids in Las Vegas to clamp down against alcohol until national repeal took effect in 1933.
Green earned his bachelor and master’s degrees at UNLV, and his doctorate at Columbia University.