The Wide-open Town that Saw the Light: Bethlehem during the Prohibition Era Lecture by Adam Bentz

Adam Bentz will present an engaging lecture on the Lehigh Valley’s notorious “wide-open” reputation during the 1920s Prohibition Era, exploring how working-class populations in Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton actively defied the Volstead Act. He will detail the massive whiskey stills and urban breweries that thrived in the area despite coordinated state and federal raids, before focusing on a pivotal turning point in Bethlehem. Bentz will reveal how the murder of a local policeman in the city’s South Side red-light district triggered a successful political reform movement, sweeping out organized crime and paving the way for Bethlehem to survive the Great Depression.