The story
The 18th Amendment, ratified on January 16, 1919, banned the manufacture, sale and transport of intoxicating liquors across the United States, taking effect on January 17, 1920. Congress passed the Volstead Act over President Wilson's veto in October 1919 to enforce it and defined 'intoxicating' as anything above 0.5 percent alcohol. Drinking itself remained legal. Prohibition lasted until December 5, 1933, when the 21st Amendment repealed it.
The ban was the triumph of a long temperance movement, driven by Protestant churches, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League, which grew out of the evangelical revivals of the early 1800s. Reformers blamed saloons for poverty, violence and broken families. World War I helped: grain was needed for food, and many breweries had German names. The new federal income tax also removed the government's reliance on liquor taxes. Drinking fell at first, but demand stayed, and bootleggers, speakeasies and smuggling flourished. Gangsters such as Al Capone built criminal empires in cities like Chicago. Enforcement was uneven, and during the Great Depression, repeal was welcomed as a source of jobs and tax revenue.
Why it mattered
- It showed the limits of using law to change personal habits, and fueled organized crime that outlasted the ban.
- It led to the 21st Amendment, the only amendment to repeal another.
- It expanded the federal government's police role and led to the growth of the Bureau of Prohibition and other agencies.
- It shifted the alcohol industry and tax system, and later arguments about the drug war often return to its lessons.
Sources
- Eighteenth Amendment Britannica
- Prohibition: Years, Amendment and Definition History.com
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