Marching to the Tune of Temperance: Women and Prohibition

March is Women’s History Month. For much of history, women were encouraged to live their lives in the private, or home sphere. But the temperance movement, and prohibition, forbidding by law the sale and/or consumption of alcohol, had women as its most active proponents. Temperance was closely aligned with the women’s suffrage movement. Especially in the south, temperance gave many women, black and white, their first taste of political activism.  Bossier Parish was no exception. 

The effort to eliminate alcohol, or the “dry” movement, as it was often known, began in force in the 1840s. By 1873, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) eclipsed other national antialcohol movements, especially becoming a political power across much of the Midwest and South including Louisiana. This was especially true in the strongly Baptist and Methodist areas of north Louisiana. The Women’s Christian Temperance Unions for Black women in Louisiana and some other states were called “Sojourner Truth” departments of the WCTU, named after the famous abolitionist and temperance advocate. 

There was more to the Temperance Movement than just social views on drinking alcohol. For the women in this movement, their real battle was against the ramifications alcohol had on their lives. Women began in the movement with no voting rights, no or limited rights to their own property, and few ways to make a living on their own, even if the effects of a husband’s alcohol consumption included violence or squandering the family’s funds. Frances Willard, who became the second, and very effective, WCTU president in 1879, smartly applied the WCTU’s doctrine of “home protection” to include suffrage. It was only with political access and power that women could affect the social reforms that would, as Willard called it, “make the whole world home-like,” and safe.  

By the end of the nineteenth century, Bossier Parish had “voted out whisky” and outlawed the sale of alcoholic beverages. The editor of the “Bossier Banner-Progress,” Francis Scanland, stopped taking ads for whisky, even though, according him, they’d been offered ads for a sum of money they could have really used but they “cheerfully took our position with the women and children and prohibitionists of Bossier in their opposition to the whisky monster.” In an editorial in 1912 titled, “No more Whisky Ads,” Scanland went on to applaud other papers in surrounding parishes that were following suit and encouraged other editors to do the same. 

In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a nationwide constitutional law, the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating beverages. It did not outlaw the possession or consumption of alcohol. The Volstead Act, the federal law that provided for the enforcement of Prohibition, had enough loopholes and weaknesses to open the door to countless schemes to evade the “dry” mandate. Several of these schemes flourished in the backwoods, fields and even towns of Bossier Parish and northwest Louisiana. Reports in the local newspapers show that Bossier Parish law enforcement was kept busy tracking down the bootleggers (illegal manufacturers and distributors of alcoholic drink) and their hidden stills in the towns and remote corners of the parish. 

The WCTU saw that they still had work to do . On July 1, 1926, the “Bossier Banner-Progress” reported that Mrs. J.H. Wheeler, president of the Plain Dealing chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union remarked on the WCTU’s current purposes: 1) “To permit no weakening of the Volstead Law,” 2) “To protest against the weakening or repeal of state enforcement laws, and urge the strengthening of those not in harmony with the Volstead Law,” and 3) “To work patiently, lawfully, fairly, patriotically and prayerfully for the observance and enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment in the confidence that it will forever remain a part of the Constitution.”  To those ends, they would work to win a million members who would each sign the total abstinence pledge and had taken on the slogan, “Help Us to Hold and Enforce the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Law.” They would also enlist all governors, mayors, health directors, businessmen and other authorities to “bring to the attention of the people a realization of the disasters that would follow the return of the traffic in wine and beer.”

Of course, their assumption that the 18th Amendment would forever remain part of the Constitution, was proven incorrect in 1933, but liquor distillers’ activities were put on hold to make alcohol for war purposes. By 1945, this ban was about to lifted and Bossier WCTU women went right back into action themselves. The Bossier City chapter sent an angry telegram to President Harry S. Turman, reminding him of the of the “drunkenness, foolishness, debauchery, immorality, highway accidents, mayhem, suicide and murder” attributed to alcohol consumption, and also emphasized that with grains and sugars used in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages still at a shortage, he needed to save the grain for bread in areas facing starvation in Europe and China, and for them, the women of Bossier, he needed to save the sugar required for their canning of essential foods. The Bossier City WCTU also federated with three unions in  Shreveport and a new WCTU chapter was formed in 1947 in Haughton. As a result of their efforts some parts of Bossier did remain dry by local ordinance well after Prohibition ended. 

If you’d like to know more about Prohibition you can watch episodes of the Ken Burns documentary series “Prohibition” which is available to stream for free with your library card through Kanopy. If you need help accessing Kanopy, contact or visit us at the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center. You can also visit or contact us to peruse our oral history collection, and read the transcript of interviews that talk about prohibition. We are located at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. We are open: M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. For more information, and for other intriguing facts, photos, and videos of Bossier Parish history, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok

Images: 

• Frances Willard, image from the Library of Congress, c. 1890
• Root beer ad for temperance from the Bossier Banner-Progress Aug 05, 1897

Article by: Pam Carlisle

The Dreaded Jake-Leg and Prohibition

 In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a nationwide constitutional law, the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating beverages. It did not outlaw the possession or consumption of alcohol. The Volstead Act, the federal law that provided for the enforcement of Prohibition, had enough loopholes and weaknesses to open the door to countless schemes to evade the “dry” mandate. Several of these schemes flourished in the backwoods, fields and even towns of Bossier Parish and northwest Louisiana. Reports in the local newspapers show that Bossier Parish law enforcement was kept busy tracking down the bootleggers (illegal manufacturers and distributors of alcoholic drink) and their hidden stills in the towns and remote corners of the parish.

Even when Prohibition ended, some parts of the area remained “dry” by local ordinance. In an oral history interview about living through the Great Depression, Gypsy Demaris Boston, who lived in Ida, a small town just across the Red River from the north Bossier town of Plain Dealing said, “the little town that I lived in, the ward was dry, that meant that we were not allowed to sell whiskey, but you could just go five or six miles west and that ward would sell whiskey, but five or six miles was too far for many of the people to get their whiskey so there were bootleg stills around Ida and a few of them made the wrong kind of whiskey and a few people took Jake Leg disease from drinking alcohol – which was a wood alcohol and a poison - rather than the alcohol that people usually drink to get drunk on.”

Ms. Gypsy, who passed away in January, 2022, at the age of 102, brought up an unintended and tragic consequence of Prohibition, beyond the Hollywoodized stories of outlaw bootleggers and the cat and mouse games to catch them. The “bootleg” system meant people were consuming something that was completely unregulated, and it could cause a serious neurological syndrome that, until my interview with Ms. Gypsy, I had not heard of: “Jake-Leg”.

“Jake” was an abbreviated name for a common patent medicine, Jamaican Ginger. Because of their high-alcohol content, patent medicines were often consumed by folks to fulfil their craving for alcohol. Jamaican Ginger had an especially high alcohol content, 70-80 percent. To prevent this work-around for buying and selling alcohol during Prohibition, the Federal government required the non-prescription version to have a high content of bitter-tasting ginger oleoresin to give it an unpalatable taste and classify it as “nonpotable.”

Manufacturers were always looking for cheaper additives that also tasted less bitter but would still allow them to pass the government’s Prohibition audits. One manufacturer of Jamaican ginger, Boston-Hub company, eventually chose a mixture containing TOCP, a plasticizer used in lacquers. The TOCP manufacturer, the Celluloid Corporation, claimed that it was non-toxic. However, it was later determined to be a neurotoxin that especially causes damage to the nerves in the spinal cord.

The first cases of Jake users reporting to doctors that they were unable to use their hands and feet were in Oklahoma City, OK in 1930. Some could walk, but they had no control over the muscles that allowed them to point their toes upward. Therefore, they would raise their feet high with their toes flopping downward, making their toes hit the ground first, followed by their heels. This very distinctive gait became known as the “jake walk” or the “jake dance.” Additionally, the calves of the legs would loosen and sag and the muscles between the thumbs and fingers would atrophy, among other unpleasant or disabling symptoms. There was no cure; some sufferers would improve over time, others would not.

As Ms. Gypsy’s commentary shows, neurological effects of bootleg alcohol, also known as “moonshine,” were sometimes also referred to as “jake-leg.” Sometimes these symptoms were the effects of lead absorbed from improper stills (such as ones made with old radiators) or containing improperly soldered connections which could cause lead poisoning, partial paralysis or “jake-leg” type symptoms.

Some accounts contemporary to the era put the blame for their affliction squarely on the sufferers of Jake Leg, such as “Col. I.B. Dearne” who wrote a syndicated column, “The Dearne Dope” that appeared in the Jun 5th, 1930, Bossier Banner Progress stating that both jake leg and the economic depression of the time were all consequences of excess. “We’ve got everything we have ever had in this great country, and lots of things we never had before, including jake leg and swell head, to say nothing of homes full of installment furniture.”

However, by the 1950’s when further local measures prohibiting alcohol were being considered, the prospect of jake leg was used as a reminder of the unintended negative consequences of taking regulation away from something humans seemed determined to consume. “The Shreveport Journal” of Jul 15th, 1952 published a notice from “The Committee for Legal Control” that was made to look like an enlarged classified ad, and asked, “How would you like to see this ad in our local papers? ‘Personal Notice by Bootlegger: I will not be responsible for any crime, “jake-leg, “corruption or evil that arises out of my being put in business if Shreveport votes dry.’”

A group of citizens published a letter in an advertisement in the June 5th, 1952, “Bossier City Planters Press” to support two business owners who apparently sold liquor and were the subject of a pamphlet questioning their morals by reminding readers, “We lived through one Prohibition…We have seen running gun battles on Milam Street [in downtown Shreveport], minors crippled from the ‘Jake Leg,’ bootleggers and politicians working hand in hand.” The letter stated these business owners were “respectable citizens of Bossier City, property owners, taxpayers, church-goers, and civic minded gentlemen” … with customers who “are respectable, intelligent adults who enjoy a drink from time to time.”

If you’d like to know more about Prohibition you can watch episodes of the Ken Burns documentary series “Prohibition” which is available to stream for free with your library card through Kanopy. If you need help accessing Kanopy, contact or visit us at the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center. You can also visit or contact us to peruse our oral history collection, and read the transcript of interviews such as Ms. Gypsy Boston’s. We are located at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. We are open: M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. For more information, and for other intriguing facts, photos, and videos of Bossier Parish history, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok.

This Month In Bossier Parish History

 January: Though the Years

Jan 1951: Haughton High School Newspaper "The Buccaneer Trove".  

    Images are newspaper clippings from the Haughton High Schools' newspaper and photos relating to clippings are from the 1951 Haughton High School's yearbook

Weekly News From 100 Years Ago

· Mr. and Mrs. M.B. Kidd are proud parents of a baby girl: Shirley Beth Kidd

· Gardeners get busy!

· Mr. M.R. (Michael Roy) Bolinger and Mr. J.E. White stopped by to renew their subscription.

· Frances Abney spent Sunday with his parents.

· Mr. R.B. (Robert Beverly) Hill, owner of the Bossier Abstract and Title Co., gifted a desirable wall calendar to the Banner.

· A petition for concrete sidewalk along Cane St (a.k.a. Barksdale Blvd) to the foot of the Traffic St. Bridge at the point of the Bossier City Lumber Company was brought to the City Council.

Newspaper clippings are from the 11 Jan 1923 issue of the Bossier Banner.

Jan. 17, 1920: Prohibition was declared. 

The Prohibition Era began in 1920 when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors, went into effect with the passage of the Volstead Act. Despite the new legislation, Prohibition was difficult to enforce. The increase of the illegal production and sale of liquor (known as “bootlegging”), the proliferation of speakeasies (illegal drinking spots) and the accompanying rise in gang violence and organized crime led to waning support for Prohibition by the end of the 1920s. In early 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th. The 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, ending Prohibition. 

Jan. 26, 1939: Mathilde Gatlin, a native of Bossier Parish, was the first female to be chosen as a company sponsor in the R.O.T.C. at Louisiana State University. 

Over Thirty Years of Bootlegging in Bossier Parish

The Prohibition Act went into effect on Jan. 16, 1920 making “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.” However, Bossier Parish became a “dry” parish 21 years before the 18th Amendment took effect.

Just as with any law, those that disagree with the laws of the land find ways to circumvent them. With Prohibition came the nefarious business of bootlegging, where alcohol was manufactured illegally. Prohibition also gave rise to speakeasies, also known as blind pigs and blind tigers, which were illicit establishments that served alcohol illegally.

Bootlegging started in Bossier Parish after it became a dry parish in 1899 and continued until the 18th Amendment was repealed through the 21st Amendment on Dec. 5, 1933. Those caught engaging in the illegal manufacture of alcohol were arrested during the dry period before the Prohibition Era began. However, once it became a federal crime, federal agents were dispatched throughout the country to work with local law enforcement in a war against bootleggers. Local and federal agents worked together to locate and destroy such operations.

Bootlegging raids, arrests, and deaths became a part of the daily news throughout the nation, and Bossier Parish was no exception. The following article, which appeared in The Bossier Banner on Sept. 9, 1920, is a prime example of news reports during that period.

Moonshine still recently confiscated by the Internal Revenue Bureau photographed at the Treasury Department. [Between 1921 and 1932] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/89706121/>.

“Saturday afternoon of last week Deputy Sheriff Job Wilson, accompanied by Marshall George Huckabay, of Bossier City, and two government men engaged in the enforcement of the present prohibition regulations, made a raid that netted 22 quarts of moonshine whiskey, and the following day returned to the scene of operation and located and destroyed about 80 gallons of mash. The place raided was a brothel, or, perhaps, more of a road house for the dispensing of intoxicating liquors, conducted by a white woman by the name of Alice Mitchell. Its location is in Ward Six, to be seen to the left of the road soon after crossing the Red Chute bridge when driving east on the Bossier City and Haughton road. The woman is said to have been a resident of Shreveport, prior to the time of the wiping out of the restricted district in the city. She acquired a small acreage at the location mentioed [sic], and, in a secluded spot, had a house erected for the purposes above named. She was arrested and lodged in the Shreveport Jail and is being held as a federal prisoner. Also, there will likely be charges filed against her in Bossier Parish, and other arrests are expected to follow as a result of the operations in which she was perhaps the leader.

“Monday afternoon the officers here named destroyed about 150 gallons of mash some five miles southwest of Bellevue. The location of this still was in a field, but secluded on a timbered branch. No arrests were made, as the operators were not located. However, the two men are said to be known, and are thought to have been absent at another still they operate.

“Tuesday afternoon Mose Davis, a negro whose home is near Bodcau Station, on the V.S. and P. Railroad, was arrested for operating a still, and was also jailed in Shreveport. At his place about 30 gallons of corn mash was destroyed.

“Thus ends the story for the present, but we have learned that we may well expect material for like stories almost any day. Greed is a trait that is well cultivated in many—and so is the appetite for booze.”

To learn more about Bossier Parish during the Prohibition Era, visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center at 2206 Beckett St., Bossier City.

By: Amy Robertson

Temperance and Prohibition in Bossier Parish

The temperance movement in the early 1800s served as a foundation for the “dry” crusade, which led to the prohibition era. During the time before the prohibition era, some municipalities and states elected to become dry, refusing to license the sale or manufacturing of alcohol. Bossier Parish exercised its local option on Sep. 26, 1899, making the entire parish dry.

The announcement appeared in The Shreveport Times on Sep. 27, 1899, stating, “The Second Ward of Bossier Parish Goes Dry.”

The Shreveport Times, Sept. 27, 1899. 

“The election for or against whiskey license in the Second ward of Bossier parish took place yesterday and from all accounts it went dry by a large majority. Mr. Henry Carlton and several other gentlemen who went to Benton by private conveyance to cast their votes were in the city yesterday and report the vote against license as almost unanimous. When they were there but two votes were known to have been cast in favor of license. The result of this election makes Bossier a dry parish throughout. The last place to surrender was the parish seat [Benton]. The victory for temperance is due to the work of the ladies of Bossier who have earnestly engaged in a crusade against whiskey license for some time. One by one the strongholds fell.”

On Dec. 18, 1917, the National Prohibition Act, commonly referred to as the Volstead Act, was proposed by congress. On Jan. 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment was ratified by the requisite number of states. The Prohibition Act took effect on a federal level on Jan. 16, 1920. Louisiana, Gov. Ruffin G. Pleasant ratified the 18th Amendment on Aug. 9, 1918, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol for beverage purposes.

The following is an article from The Bossier Banner on Dec. 25, 1919, “Business and Prohibition,” which describes a dry Christmas in Plain Dealing.

“Mr. W.A. Bounds and Mr. J.S. Rodgers each of whom has known Plain Dealing ever since the town was established some thirty-odd years ago, were remarking Tuesday that it was the first really and truly ‘dry’ Christmas in its history. Heretofore whiskey has been shipped into Plain Dealing by the express medium and bootlegging has been at times rather common.

“This Christmas there has been no whiskey, and Mr. Rodgers estimated the saving in cash at some thousands of dollars, to say nothing of the saving in broken heads and disrupted family relations.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

National Photo Company Collection. LOT 12351-5 <item> [P&P]

“The reporter suggested that the saving in the way of prohibited liquor would go far toward making up the shortage in the cotton crop, and Mr. Bounds agreed that $5000 or $6000 was not too high a figure to claim as a saving from old John Barleycorn in this community this Christmas – remembering that a single quart of whiskey now costs a giant sum all by itself.

“The Christmas trade was good – all the merchants were busy. Collections have been better on account of prohibition, it was agreed, and probably no business man in Plain Dealing would like to go back to the ‘wet’ Christmas.”

This year is the 100th anniversary of prohibition in the United States. To learn more about prohibition in Bossier Parish, visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City.

By: Amy Robertson