Online Exhibits

Sinners and Saints

Agitate, Educate, Organize!

Following the lead of easterners, Kansans formed temperance societies as early as the 1850s. These included the Kansas State Temperance Society and the Independent Order of Good Templars, among others. Branches of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) applied their motto " Agitate, Educate, Organize" to seek support. They saw prayer and persuasion as the proper means to prohibition.

With help from women, the national Prohibition Party was formed in 1876. Kansas Governor John P. St. John ran for President of the United States on this party's ticket in 1884; his campaign ribbon is pictured at right. He believed the Republican Party did not take a strong enough stand on the alcohol issue. Although St. John did not win, he garnered enough votes to swing the election in favor of the Democratic ticket.

As governor, John P. St. John mobilized supporters in the late 1870s to convince the Kansas legislature to let the people decide about prohibition. Finally, legislators placed on the ballot a constitutional amendment.

The ballot passed in 1880, 39 years before national prohibition. The Kansas amendment made illegal the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. Kansas became the second state, after Maine, to enact laws prohibiting alcohol.

Despite the amendment's passage, though, Kansas prohibition was not entirely successful. Many saloons and breweries continued to operate. A major loophole in the law allowed druggists and physicians to dispense alcohol for medicinal purposes (the word "medicinal" was interpreted very loosely). Lastly, Kansans continued to make, sell, and consume alcohol in their homes.

Reformers who had worked so hard to achieve prohibition were outraged that saloons or "joints" continued to operate openly. Carry Nation (pictured at left) burst onto the Kansas temperance scene in 1899. Once widowed by a man who drank himself to death, Nation was passionate about the cause. Over the next several years, her supporters (called Home Defenders), smashed saloons operating illegally in Kansas. Nation's methods put her at odds with more restrained temperance groups yet she became the symbol for prohibition in Kansas.

Reformers celebrated a major victory when national prohibition took effect in 1920, but prohibition proved difficult to enforce. National prohibition was repealed in 1933, but not in Kansas. Dry forces remained strong, although Kansas was criticized for its prohibition amendment which many saw as a failure.

Here's a timeline of alcohol reform.

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