Amused witnesses watch in the background as Lettie Payne destroys bottles of alcoholic beverages at an unidentified site in Evansville after Prohibition went into effect. Payne was an active member of the Indiana chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a national organization devoted to social reform that aimed to “protect the home†and uplift society in general. She served as president of the Vanderburgh County unit, as well as a delegate to the WCTU’s national convention in 1918.
In that year, the Indiana legislature passed a bill that made the state “dry,†although nationally, Prohibition did not go into effect until January 16, 1920. The ban on alcohol officially ended in Indiana on April 7, 1933.
