Dry County: Lubbock and Prohibition's Long Shadow
Near Lubbock, Texas
For decades after Prohibition ended nationally in nineteen thirty-three, Lubbock remained complicated territory for anyone wanting a legal drink. The city and county operated under a patchwork arrangement that lasted most of the twentieth century and reflected the deep influence of Baptist and evangelical Christianity on the region's political culture.
Within the city limits, bars and restaurants could serve alcohol by the drink, but liquor stores were forbidden. In the county outside the city, the situation was reversed: packaged liquor could be purchased in stores, but no sales by the glass. Private clubs and country clubs operated as the practical workaround for those who wanted to drink in social settings.
The arrangements generated a predictable local economy: the nearest counties that allowed full alcohol sales attracted liquor stores catering to Lubbock residents making the drive. The underground economy filled in the rest.
In August of two thousand eight, the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce organized a petition drive for a vote on full county-wide alcohol sales. On May ninth, two thousand nine, the measure passed by a margin of nearly two to one, sixty-four and a half percent in favor of packaged sales, sixty-nine and a half percent in favor of mixed-drink service in restaurants. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission issued permits to more than eighty stores afterward. It was the end of a peculiarly durable local institution, one that had shaped the city's social geography for generations.
