Museum of the American Gangster.
School Tours Pre- and Post-Visit Teacher’s Guide
Located in a former speakeasy, the Museum of the American Gangster aims to objectively present the role that crime has played in shaping the politics, culture, myth and lore of New York City, Chicago and other urban areas. Exploring the historic site and museum objects reveals a story of immigrants, local power and clashing concepts of liberty.
Your Visit:
Origins: Organized crime has a long history. In New York City, street gangs were common, often based on immigrant origins. In the Five Points neighborhood near City Hall, many Irish gangs arose when immigration surged from the 1840s onwards. Living under British rule in Ireland, many Irish had a tradition of resistance to authority and self-policing. Encountering discrimination in America, these urban immigrants often fought back by forming gangs. Likewise, Jewish immigrants, especially young men, formed gangs that ran extortion rackets and supposedly “protected” stores from crime by outsiders. These informal street gangs turned into a larger, more organized underworld of crime when anti-drinking laws were passed.
Background: The New York Story
For temperance advocates and the Anti-Saloon league, New York City symbolized many of the features of drinking culture they disliked. Many immigrants cherished their Old World drinking habits such as taking the whole family to the beer hall on Sundays. The city was full of drinking places, and enjoyed staying up late. Big city dwellers were more tolerant of edgy entertainment, and New York grew large enough to have large adult entertainment zones. Since many saloons also functioned as political clubs, the connection of political power and drinking made small-town America see big city party politics as drunken and corrupt. These factors made New York a target when Prohibition was passed. But it also made New York City a center of resistance to the Federal Law.
Why was the 18th Amendment hard to enforce in New York City? First of all, when a law does not have the full support of people, it is difficult for police to make it work. Secondly, the United States has several conflicting layers of police authority. A Federal law may not be a priority for Municipal Police who report to the Mayor. In New York, Mayor Jimmy Walker (1925-1933) was a Tammany Hall democrat, lover of nightlife and speakeasies, excellent dancer and card-player and no friend to the Prohibition law. And a third factor is the geography of New York, an island with miles of coast, harbor and landing places which made it very difficult to patrol, but very easy for bootleggers to travel.
Lesson Plan
Outcomes:
Students will have a grasp of the historical evolution of gangs, the development of the Volstead Act, the immigration contexts for urban organized crime. They will be able to interpret written and documentary evidence, form arguments and articulate conclusions based on the museum visit and some of the exercises below.
Based on your visit, examination of images and objects, and reading of wall text, answer the following questions or do the suggested exercises.
- Report: Make a newspaper interview with one organized crime figure.
- Debate: Organize a debate on Prohibition, drawing on information about the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the Anti-Saloon League, popular song sheets and imagery of responses to the ban on alcohol.
- Investigate: Divide class into a small group of crime experts and a larger group of recruits. Teach them some modern policing techniques for investigating crime such as fingerprinting and ballistic signatures. Use evidence and techniques exhibited in stories about John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd.
- Spot: A tough teenage Jew. A tough Irishman. Write a short biography of your chosen figure that situates his criminal activity in the urban immigration context.
Many people associate organized crime with Italians, but actually several immigrant groups disliked the Prohibition laws and saw an economic opportunity when people wanted to continue drinking.
- Artifact: Alcoholic Blues. Edward Laska/Alfred von Tilzer. 1919
Song sheet from Prohibition.
Look at the cover of this song sheet. What do you think the owl in the crescent moon means? Why is it blue? What kind of song do you think this might be (romantic, humorous, cabaret number, drinking song)? When and where would it have been sung or performed?
Excerpt from lyrics:
I love my country, ‘deed I do
But oh, that war has made me blue.
I like fighting, that’s my name,
But fightin’ is the least about the fightin’ game.
Blues I’ve got the blues
Since they amputated my booze
Lordy lordy, war is well, You know, I don’t have to tell
Oh, I’ve got the alcoholic blues, some blues I’ve got the blues
Questions to discuss in class.
How do people express their opinions about social issues using popular culture?
How do movements use music and song to unify and mobilize their followers?
This song came out soon after World War I ended. How did soldiers feel about returning to a country on the brink of banning drinking?
Here is a link to more information on Alcoholic Blues. http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/media/0705_0103music.pdf
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Common Core Learning Standards. (ELA) and Social Studies Frameworks. NY State.
Reading Standards and Literacy for Social Studies
Key Ideas and Details
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Present information, findings and supporting evidence clearly
Social Studies Frameworks
A. Gathering, interpreting and using evidence.
2. Identify, evaluate and describe evidence.
B. Chronological Reasoning and Causation
3. Identify, analyze and evaluate the relationship between multiple causes and effects
- Learn More with these links to online materials
The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia has extensive background materials on Prohibition and some game-oriented exercises and essay topics here. Learn about the political forces opposing alcohol use and how the 18th Amendment was passed, and repealed. http://constitutioncenter.org/media/files/Probition_Essay_final.pdf
Library of Congress Pathways Lesson Module on 18th Amendment.
http://www.uni.edu/icss/pathways/Lesson%20Module--Prohibition.pdf
Lesson Planet.
http://www.lessonplanet.com/teachers/roaring-twenties-prohibition-and-organized-crime
http://www.lessonplanet.com/teachers/vegas-and-the-mob