12. Antisemitism and Prohibition
Alcohol manufacturers’ support of black voting rights infuriated southern whites. Their ire against the booze industry was further aroused by anti-Semitism: distilling had become a largely Jewish industry. Dry politicians made a habit of listing the names of leading distillers, such as Hirschbaum, Steinberg, and Schaumberg, to make the point that they were not attacking an “American” industry, but a “foreign” one that was exploiting and debauching America’s blacks.
The press got in on the act, such as McClure magazine referring in 1909 to the: “unscrupulous Jewish type of mind which has taken charge of the wholesale liquor trade of this country“. Collier’s did an expose about the cheap liquor popular in southern black dives, commonly known as “nigger gin” and manufactured by Jewish distiller Lee Levy. It came in a variety of brand names, such as Black C-ock Vigor Gin, sold in bottles featuring illustrations of nearly naked white women.
