This Sunday is a moment in North Carolina history. Oct. 3, 2021, is the first Sunday a bottle of liquor has been legally sold in the state since the beginning of Prohibition in the early 1900s.
While ABC stores remain closed statewide on Sundays, North Carolina distilleries can now sell their own liquor products starting this weekend due to changes in a wide-ranging alcoholic beverage control law.
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"This weekend will mark the first time since the end of Prohibition that liquor bottles will be legally sold on a Sunday in North Carolina," according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
North Carolina's complicated relationship with Prohibition is deeply ingrained in its culture – right down to the state's roots in NASCAR and moonshine.
North Carolina was the first state to enact Prohibition of alcohol, starting in 1908. Even before spirits were made illegal, many counties were already dry and unable to sell alcohol in bars and saloons.
To mark the historic occasion, Mystic Farm & Distilling Company in Durham is hosting Representative Zack Hawkins to celebrate the new law, HB 890.
Jonathan Blitz, owner of Mystic Farm & Distilling Company, made his first bottle sale at noon – the first time in over a century this has legally happened on a Sunday.
North Carolina's complicated history with Prohibition, moonshine and bootlegging
While this Sunday marks the first legal spirits sold in North Carolina for more than a century, it's far from the first liquor sold on a Sunday.
Prohibition didn't stop many people from drinking. An entire stretch of northern Wake County known as The Harricane was dedicated to producing and selling illegal moonshine. That community, up around modern day Falls Lake, has mostly vanished as alcohol sales became more readily available and nearby cities swallowed up those rural moonshine stills. But, out in those woods you can still find old stills rusting, a reminder of bygone days.
Many politicians and wealthy men did not have to give up alcohol. One old hotel in downtown Raleigh, situated near the State Capitol, once served the wealthy elite and politicians who came into town for work. Beneath that same hotel, which is now used as senior housing, the remnants of an old speakeasy are still sealed away, hidden beneath the Fayetteville Street. In the 1920s and 30s, the classy establishment would have been the unofficial 'office' for politicians and state leaders, making handshake agreements over whiskey.
Prohibition officially ended in 1933, but many counties remained dry for decades.
Johnny C. Binkley, a historian and author who served on the task force responsible for taking down moonshine stills, recalls moonshining peaking around 1956, but still having immense popularity through the 1960s and 70s.
In a history book based on his experiences during that era, he recalls that even though alcohol was legal, it was harder to come by and very expensive in those days.
"You could drive from Raleigh to Charlotte and never pass a store where you could buy liquor or beer," said Binkley.
In those days, bootleggers and moonshiners could thrive.
Things have changed a lot since the days of Prohibition and moonshine. Even the Town of Cary, named after renowned Prohibitionist preacher Samuel Fenton Cary, now has multiple breweries and bottle shops within walking distance.
And now we can add to the history books: As of Oct. 3, 2021, liquor can even be sold on Sundays.