Origins and national Prohibition (1886–1933) As of 1880, county-level bans on the sale of alcohol had been enacted in 11 counties in Mississippi. In 1886, the Mississippi state legislature passed a local option law, allowing counties to hold a referendum to decide whether to prohibit the sale of alcohol. By 1890, Mississippi had more dry counties than any state where alcohol was not banned entirely. By the time a statewide ban was considered, 69 of Mississippi's 76 then-existing counties had voted for prohibition. On December 31, 1908, the state government revoked all liquor licenses in Mississippi, effectively making the sale of alcohol illegal statewide, but not its possession, consumption, manufacture, distribution, or use as medicine. The law was poorly enforced in its first decade, due to the ease of importing alcohol from other states. The state legislature responded by making it a criminal offense to transport liquor over a distance greater than 100 feet, but illegal saloons remained widespread. When the
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was introduced, proposing to ban the sale and manufacture of alcohol nationwide, Mississippi became the first state to ratify the amendment on January 7, 1918. The state legislature approved the amendment on the first day of its legislative session and with less than 20 minutes of debate before doing so. The sale of beer and light wine, then legally defined as having an
alcohol content by weight of four percent or less, was made legal in all parts of Mississippi on February 26, 1934. The law provided for counties to hold a referendum once every five years on whether to continue allowing the sale of beer, as well as for a statewide referendum on the question of legalizing hard liquor. If the referendum question had been approved by a majority of Mississippi voters, it would have created a state liquor commission, responsible for state-owned liquor stores located only in those counties where a majority voted "yes". The statewide referendum was held on July 10, 1934, and legal liquor was rejected by a wide margin. Additionally,
Jefferson Davis County scheduled its beer referendum on the same date, becoming the first county in Mississippi to re-prohibit beer. By October 1937, a beer referendum had been held in 45 of Mississippi's 82 counties, with 42 voting to ban it and three choosing to allow its continued sale. The state legislature modified the law in 1950 to allow cities with a population of 2,500 or more to hold a beer referendum separately from the surrounding county. In 1956, the possession of any quantity of beer in counties where it could not be sold was banned. At that time, 53 counties had voted to outlaw beer (with the exception of two cities inside those counties that had re-legalized it), while 29 counties continued to allow it. Beginning on April 1, 1944, Mississippi House Bill 892 levied a 10 percent tax on "any tangible property, articles or commodities whatsoever, the sale or distribution of which is prohibited by law". Commonly known as the "black market tax" or "bootleg tax", this law was understood at the time to refer primarily to the sale of liquor. The National Tax Association observed that it was "unique in the annals of American state taxation" and that "except as a form of legal
blackmail, it is difficult to see how such a tax can be effectively administered". However, in its first month, the tax collected revenues of $29,111 () from an estimated 1,000 illegal liquor dealers and sellers of other illegal goods. Another referendum on the legalization of alcohol was held on August 26, 1952. The majority again voted against liquor, although by a smaller margin than in 1934. Legalization received majority support in 15 of Mississippi's 82 counties, according to preliminary returns. The state legislature again considered a local option system in 1960, but the bill lost momentum after the high-profile fatal shooting of
Marion County sheriff J. V. Polk, believed to have been committed by liquor bootleggers. Johnson's proposal became more urgent on the night of February 4, when a high-profile liquor raid was carried out by Hinds County deputy sheriff Tom Shelton at the Jackson Country Club. Since being granted the power to enforce the law by Sheriff Fred Pickett in 1965, Shelton had become one of the state's few strict enforcers of the liquor law. At first, this enforcement applied mostly to
roadhouses in the rural part of the county with predominantly black customers, but Shelton grew determined to enforce the law against the wealthy white citizens of the state capital as well. The Country Club raid, seizing bottles of
champagne and breaking up a reception attended by Governor Johnson, William Winter, and many other prominent Mississippians, drew even greater attention to the poor enforcement of the laws in the rest of the state. The club's assistant manager, Charles Wood, was arrested in the raid. In the ensuing case of
The State of Mississippi v. Charles Wood, Wood's lawyers argued that the "black market tax" on liquor contradicted the state's ostensible ban on alcohol, and that the widespread existence of establishments openly selling liquor showed that the state already tolerated it. The court called on district attorneys and other officials from across the state, who testified that it had become almost impossible to convict liquor traffickers because of
jury nullification. Judge Charles Barber agreed with the argument, noting that state law allowed liquor sellers to apply to the tax commission for licenses, showing that the state was knowingly approving of certain alcohol sales. Wood was acquitted of all charges. The same legal argument was introduced in a case before the
Mississippi Supreme Court in May. If the court was to strike down the state's liquor law, then alcohol would be made legal in Mississippi without any restrictions or regulations whatsoever. The state legislature rushed to pass a modified version of Governor Johnson's proposal, removing the statewide referendum and replacing it with a local option referendum to be organized in each of Mississippi's 82 counties. The bill was sent to the governor on May 16, three days before the state supreme court case was scheduled to begin. However, Johnson neither signed nor vetoed the measure at first, indecisive and unhappy with the idea that some counties could legalize alcohol even if the majority of Mississippians opposed it statewide. Johnson eventually signed the bill on May 21, less than ten hours before it would have automatically become law without his signature. The state supreme court ultimately was not persuaded by the argument, overturning Wood's acquittal in June, but by then the local option law was already being implemented. ==County legal option laws (1966–present)==