Michigan Licensed Beverage Association

After the repeal of prohibition in 1933, some Michigan tavern owners and liquor dealers organized trade associations including the Progressive Liquor Alliance and the Royal Ark No. 2. In 1939 these two organizations agreed to merge. The following year the Michigan Table Top Congress was organized. The group headquartered in Detroit until it moved to Lansing in 1946. In 1947 the Association of Michigan Tavern Owners and Operators joined the Table Top Congress. The organization became a lobbyist on behalf of the hospitality industry. It soon led the campaign to repeal a law that prohibited women from tending bar in cities of 50,000 or more residents unless they were the bar owner's daughter or wife. In 1963 the organization was renamed the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association.