One historian wrote that “support for Prohibition represented the single most important bond between Klansmen throughout the nation,” and others have described the group’s attacks on bootleggers and an overlap in membership between the Klan and the Anti-Saloon League, which was a key group that pushed the legislation that banned alcohol. The racial animus here wasn’t just against blacks, however; in fact, it primarily focused on immigrant groups that Prohibition supporters linked with excessive drinking like Germans, Irish people, Jews, and Italians.
