This Day In History: Ga. Governor Signs Prohibition Law

A conversation with Dr. Clifford Kuhn

If we were to turn Georgia’s clock back 108 years to this date in 1907, we’d witness Gov. Hoke Smith signing into law a statewide prohibition of alcoholic beverages.  

The movement to ban liquor had been gaining momentum in various parts of the country since the 1880s, and, as Georgia State University associate professor of history Dr. Clifford Kuhn explains, by the early 20th century many Progressives had adopted prohibition as part of their reform agenda, including the South.