For Immediate Release:
February 17, 2014
Contact:
Amy Mino, Minnesota Landmarks
(651) 292-3285, [email protected]
Prohibition Era Explored In History and Law Series
at Landmark Center Beginning March 1
ST PAUL, MN - The “Uncle Sam Worked Here: Conversations in Public History” series returns to Landmark
Center this spring with a series of free public programs in March and April. The programs begin with a guided
tour of the "Uncle Sam Worked Here" exhibit in Landmark Center at 9:30 am, departing from the Visitor
Information Center located on the first floor. Complimentary refreshments will be served at 10:30 am, followed
by the guest speaker program in one of the historic courtrooms. The programs are free but require a
reservation to 651-292-4375 or by email ([email protected]).
The series will explore Landmark Center’s historical ties with the Prohibition Era: development of the law and its
effect on organized crime and impact on the local courts, and its repeal with the ratification of the Twenty-first
Amendment. Congressman Andrew Volstead’s office was located on the fourth floor of Landmark Center, and
many of the trials that were conducted in the U.S. District Court during the 1920s were connected to
bootlegging and other unlawful Prohibition-era activities. Law enforcement required collaboration (for better or
worse in St. Paul) between Federal agencies and local authorities.
Three programs are planned for the series:
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Saturday, March 1 - History Professor Clifford Clark of Carleton College will present “Prohibition and
America’s Struggle with Alcohol Abuse.” Professor Clark will look at what Prohibition law outlawed, its
impact on tax revenues, and what problems it caused for national and local law enforcement agencies,
as well as relate Prohibition to the broader context of America’s struggle with control of alcohol.
Saturday, March 8 – In the program “Distilling Crime: Bootlegging, Corruption and the Minnesota
Courts in the 1920s,” John Dillinger Slept Here author Paul Maccabee will discuss the rise of crime in the
Twin Cities during the 1920s as a result of Prohibition, and lawyer Tom Boyd of Winthrop & Weinstine
will discuss the impact Prohibition had on the Courts.
Saturday, April 5 – In the program “Andrew Volstead: The Private Man Behind the Public Face of
Prohibition,” Melanie Gabbert-Gatchell, Adjunct Faculty at Southwest State University and member of
the Granite Falls Historical Society, will present the private face of Congressman Andrew Volstead, who
authored the Prohibition legislation.
This series is supported by the Federal Bar Association - Minnesota Chapter and Minnesota State Bar
Foundation. Landmark Center, owned and sponsored by Ramsey County, is located in downtown St. Paul at 75
West 5th Street, facing Rice Park, next to the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts and The Saint Paul Hotel. It
is accessible to those with impaired mobility. Parking is available on street and in nearby Lawson, Science
Museum and RiverCentre Ramps. For more information call 651.292.3276 or visit www.landmarkcenter.org .
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