5. While Prohibitionists Sought to Disenfranchise Black Voters, Alcohol Manufacturers Became Champions of Black Voting Rights
Just as Dries sought to suppress and disenfranchise blacks because they tended to vote Wet, Wets – especially the brewers and distillers – sought to defend black voting rights. Alcohol manufacturers persistently fought against poll taxes that disenfranchised blacks. When that failed, they sent field agents into southern states to secure black votes. Their standard kit included a photo of Abraham Lincoln, some Wet propaganda, a power of attorney form, and cash to pay a black voter’s poll tax. Alcohol manufacturers’ support of black voting rights infuriated Southern whites.
Their ire against the booze industry was further aroused by anti-Semitism: the distillation of alcohol had become a largely Jewish industry. Dry politicians began to routinely list the names of major distillers, such as Hirschbaum, Steinberg, and Schaumberg, to make the point that their fight was not against “American” industry, but a “foreign” one that was exploiting and debauching America’s blacks. The press got in on the act, as exemplified by a 1909 McClure magazine article that referred to the: “unscrupulous Jewish type of mind which has taken charge of the wholesale liquor trade of this country“.
