The Prohibition Amendment, enacted in 1920, banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol in the US, leading to a huge underground market and organized crime. The Temperance Movement, which called for the ban of all alcohol use, was largely successful in passing anti-alcohol laws in two-thirds of all US states. The Prohibition Amendment was ratified by 46 of 48 states and went into effect in 1920. However, it was a failure, and the 21st Amendment repealed it in 1933.
The Prohibition Amendment is the 18th amendment to the United States Constitution, enacted in 1920. The amendment banned the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. It was the culmination of a widespread temperance, or anti -alcohol, which had swept the country in the previous decade. It has resulted in a huge underground alcohol market and a wave of organized crime, as a large segment of the US population has found alternative means to purchase alcohol. The Prohibition Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933.
In the 19th century, medical researchers and the general public learned about the dangers of excessive alcohol use, including health problems, social and occupational problems, and the addiction later known as alcoholism. A vocal segment of American Christianity has argued against all alcohol use, despite the frequent representations of alcohol in the Bible. This faction called itself the Temperance Movement, although in reality temperance means using in moderation. They were in fact prohibitionists, trying to ban even moderate use of alcohol. By 1917, they had largely succeeded, resulting in anti-alcohol laws in two-thirds of all US states.
In 1917, the United States Congress proposed the Prohibition Amendment, which would have banned alcoholic beverages throughout the country. Once proposed, the amendment had to be ratified, or passed, by at least 36 states to become law. Inspired by the popularity of the Temperance Movement, 46 of 48 states did so over the next year; only Connecticut and Rhode Island declined. The amendment was officially ratified in January 1919 and went into effect in January 1920. At the same time, a related law, the Volstead Act, went into effect, despite a presidential veto that Congress voted to override.
The Prohibition Amendment was intended to end the use of alcohol by the American public. Instead, it led to the creation of a huge underground market for booze. Previously legitimate businesses now operated in secret; by 1927, it is estimated, more than 30,000 illegal bars, or speakeasies, were in operation, double the number of bars in the pre-Prohibition era. Organized crime gangs sponsored these operations, as well as smuggling, called smuggling, forming a solid American power base from the profits. Private individuals created their own alcohol with home distilleries, giving us the terms moonshine, bath gin and still, among others.
By the early 1930s, it was clear to almost everyone that the Prohibition Amendment was a failure. The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 gave Americans more pressing problems. As New York Evening Sun columnist Don Marquis wrote, “Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into.” Franklin Roosevelt made repealing Prohibition part of his presidential campaign platform in 1932. The following year, the 21st Amendment made it a reality—the only time in U.S. history that a constitutional amendment had been repealed.
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