The Emergence of the American Saloon League (1900-1910)
Even though the amount of WCTU members were constantly growing through the Progressive Era, at the turn of the 20th century, this group was surpassed by the American Saloon League as the leading prohibition organization.[1] The ASL was founded in 1893, but for a while, it had difficulties gaining support and organizing itself in the southern US. Virginia was one of these states that they had issues with. However, they started to take advantage of segregation to gain a foothold in the south, even though they were officially neutral on race.[1] They used various tactics at African-Americans’ expense to gain a favorable view from southern state governments while denouncing alcohol, thus increasing their power in the south while convincing southerners that alcohol was bad. For example, in 1908, the ASL announced that the labels on bottles of “Black Cock Vigor Gin”, from St. Louis, were encouraging African American men to assault white women.[1]
Here is an advertisement for this company. They often featured labels on their bottles with scantily dressed white women making provocative poses. Even though it does not look like much these days, in the early 1900s these kinds of labels were rather explicit.
In 1902, the first Virginia chapter of the ASL was founded.[1] Within the next couple of years, their power in this state grew, as they established chapters in many of its counties. They were ruthlessly efficient in manipulating their surroundings to their advantage, and by 1903, they drove the Virginia legislature to pass the Mann Law. When this law was passed, it made most of rural Virginia dry by making it difficult to purchase a liquor-selling license. In 1908, the Byrd Law was passed in order to strengthen the existing Mann Law and add to it by restricting the sale of alcohol further. After 1908, Virginia was not fully dry but was well on its way there as more and more counties were rapidly becoming dry.
This map, created just one year after the Byrd Law in 1909, compared "wet" and "dry" counties in Virginia at this time, roughly seven years before the state went officially dry. It also included a comparison of the "wet" and "dry" states of the US at the time. It showed how most counties at this time ended up becoming dry while some remained wet.
As these things were unfolding, Reverend James Cannon Jr. became the president of the ASL in 1904.[1] He ended up being one of the biggest reasons why both Virginia and the US became dry. In this same era, Virginia Senator Thomas Martin and his conservative party, known as “The Ring”, were dominating politics in Virginia. Since the ASL was becoming rather powerful in Virginia, around 1909, Cannon allied the ASL with Senator Martin and The Ring.[1] This was when prohibition really started to gain traction in this state, and in 1910 both the ASL and WCTU started to support state-wide prohibition.
In the meantime, Cannon brought about a form of propaganda that started to spread quickly across the state. He started his own newspaper, the Richmond Virginian, which was known to strongly promote dry ideals.[1]
[1] Benbow, Mark. The Old Dominion Goes Dry: Prohibition in Virginia. Journal of the Brewery History Society. http://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/138/Bendow.pdf