PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release

September 8, 2022

Media Contact: Georgia Ann Hudson

georgiaann.hudson@archives.alabama.gov

(334) 353-3312

FOOD FOR THOUGHT LUNCHTIME LECTURE AT THE ARCHIVES ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 AT 12:00 PM

“THE WICKEDEST PLACE IN ALABAMA”: PROHIBITION IN BIRMINGHAM, 1907 - 1933

 PRESENTED BY MATTHEW DOWNS

Montgomery, AL (09/08/2022) – The Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) will continue its 2022 Food For Thought lunchtime lecture series on Thursday, September 15, at 12:00 PM. Matthew Downs will present “The Wickedest Place in Alabama”: Prohibition in Birmingham, 1907-1933. The program will be held in person at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) in Montgomery. Admission is FREE. It will also be livestreamed through the ADAH’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

In 1907, the citizens of Jefferson County voted to “go dry,” prohibiting the sale or consumption of alcohol. This decision preceded Alabama’s prohibition law by a year and the national ban by more than a decade. During his presentation, historian Matthew Downs will discuss how Birmingham’s early experiment with prohibition highlighted the political divisions that shaped the Progressive-Era South. He will explore the city’s efforts to enforce the ban on alcohol and how the issues that arose foreshadowed those the nation would face during federal prohibition in the 1920s.

Matthew L. Downs is the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and an associate professor of History at the University of Mobile. He is the author of Transforming the South: Federal Development in the Tennessee Valley, 1915-1960 (LSU Press, 2014), which won the 2015 James Sulzby book award from the Alabama Historical Association. He is the co-editor of The American South and the Great War, 1914-1924 (LSU Press, 2018). Downs also serves as the editor of the Alabama Review, the quarterly journal of the Alabama Historical Association. He is particularly interested in the process by which southerners, and Alabamians especially, negotiated the forces of modernization in the twentieth century.

For additional information, call (334) 353-4689. A complete schedule of our 2022 lunchtime lecture series is available at archives.alabama.gov. Food for Thought 2022 is made possible with support in memory of Mike Jenkins IV.

The Alabama Department of Archives and History is the state’s government-records repository, a special-collections library and research facility, and home to the Museum of Alabama, the state history museum. It is located in downtown Montgomery, directly across Washington Avenue from the State Capitol. The Museum of Alabama is open Monday through Saturday from 8:30 to 4:30. The EBSCO Research Room is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 to 4:30. To learn more, visit www.archives.alabama.gov or call (334) 242-4364.

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Alabama Department of Archives & History

624 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36130

www.archives.alabama.gov