Written by Lilly Kovach and Nicholas Laliberte
The Background to the Beer Riot
In 1967 Governor Warren Knowles proposed a bill which would have raised the drinking age from 18 to 21, as well as require drivers suspected of driving under the influence to take chemical sobriety tests. His rational behold this bill was the large number of traffic deaths in the state related to drunk driving. A disproportionate number of drivers and passengers killed were that of teenagers and young adults. His bill would ultimately fail in the upper house before the end of the year. It is no secret that drinking is associated with the college experience. Students drink to socialize with their friends and peers, to relieve the stresses of the week, and because everyone else is doing it and they don’t want to feel out of place. A survey conducted in 1976 by P. Schwartz and J. Lever found that college students reported they drink not to soothe their anxieties, but to relax, loosen up, and let off some steam. Many college students saw this proposed increase of the drinking age as an unfair attack on their way of life, they wanted to make their opposition heard, and with the governor Knowles in the city there was no better opportunity to gather and protest.
Stevens Point’s Beer Riot
In 1967 when talks first began in Wisconsin about raising the drinking age to 21, which was also the voting age at that time, there was a lot of backlash from young adults. On May 21st 1967 upon learning that governor Knowles, who proposed the change, would be in Stevens Point tomorrow, students in various bars across the city began planning a demonstration to showcase their disdain for the proposed age increase. Knowledge of the planned protest had spread by word of mouth and posters put up in residence halls and common areas. Around 5:30pm Monday May 22nd, Students in numbers from 1000 to 2000 began marching and carrying signs from campus to the Whiting Hotel, where the governor was staying. 150 Police officers were mustered from Stevens Point, Wausau, Rapids, Waupaca, and Marshfield to help contain and control the student crowd. At 6pm The governor attempted to speak to the crowd through a bullhorn, explaining his rationale for the change in drinking age. This was in vain as his words were drowned out by boos and jeers from the crowd, as well as the occasional splatter of a thrown egg. The governor found the whole thing rather humorous and after he finished his speech the crowd dispersed and headed towards the intersection of Division and Main street, lighting a bonfire and halting traffic. The students chanted “We want beer” and threw an effigy of the governor onto the fire which was between 15 and 30 feet high. The fire department was called to extinguish the fire with the help of the police. The students then began to move back to Whiting hotel, unaware that the governor had already left for Madison. On their journey the students came across a beer truck and liberated its contents, distributing it amongst themselves. Once they had reached the hotel the mob began to throw hundreds of eggs, bottles, and cans at the building and the police. The police were now very fed up, and began to calmly herd the students back towards campus in groups of around 25. The whole event ended around 10pm with damages to police cars estimated to be around $400 and one police officer suffering a sprained thumb. Arthur Takishian, was arrested for disorderly conduct after nearly striking two offices with a beer bottle. His bail was posted at $75.
The Aftermath of Beer Riots Across the Nation
In 1984, over 15 years after talks of raising the drinking age began, congress finally passed the National Minimum Drinking-Age Law. This bill officially raised the legal drinking age in the entire United States from 18 years of age to 21 years of age, much to the outrage of high school and college students throughout the nation. Battles between Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Remove the Intoxicated Driver (RID) and students had been raging for years leading up to this bill. MADD and RID advocated for a higher drinking age to protect children from deaths due to drunk driving, while students fighting against the change wanted to keep the age at 18 so they could party during college, which is totally fair. Nonetheless the bill passed through congress and the age was raised. This change on a federal level was detrimental to college students in the great state of Wisconsin, as drinking is a large part of campus culture across the state. Across the state, the change was met with different reactions. Many students took to the streets because of the change, arguing that if they were old enough to vote, pay taxes, and go to war, they should be old enough to drink. Despite backlash, the age stayed the same, and deaths from drunk driving have decreased too. According to responsibility.org – The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility -, drunk driving fatalities in people under 21 have decreased 83% since the drinking age increased. Personally, I don’t mind the age increase, especially considering there has been 40 years for the economy to adjust to this. It is also assuring to see such a drastic drop off in deaths from drunk drivers under the age of 21.
Sources:
The Background to the Beer Riot
“Lawmakers Refuse to Boot Minimum Drinking Age” Racine Journal-Times 1967 https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-journal-times-drinking-age-proposal/131143557
RABOW, JEROME, and MARILYN DUNCAN-SCHILL. “Drinking Among College Students.” Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, vol. 40, no. 3, 1995, pp. 52-64. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45092096
Stevens Point’s Beer Riot
UWSP Archive Beer Riot Subject File https://uwsp.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_bdb08d9e-2c10-4b5d-9e61-5388bee23242
The Aftermath of Beer Riots Across the Nation
Liebschutz, Sarah F. “The National Minimum Drinking-Age Law.” Publius 15, no. 3 (1985): 39–51. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3329976.
“Drunk Driving Fatalities.” 2015. Responsibility.org. 2015. https://www.responsibility.org/alcohol-statistics/drunk-driving-statistics/drunk-driving-fatality-statistics/.
Images
UWSP Archive Beer Riot Digitized Photos https://uwsp.access.preservica.com/index.php?name=SO_4f662a3f-d610-454a-b73a-e2a151d5a3b8
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