The Eighteenth Amendment
The Eighteenth Amendment, ratified in 1919, prohibited making, transporting, and selling alcohol. The temperance movement attributed societal problems to alcohol and campaigned against it. In 1933, the Twenty-First Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, modifying laws to allow beer sales.
Effects of Prohibition
National prohibition failed to eliminate drinking and increased organized crime. The homicide rate rose from six per 100,000 before Prohibition to nearly ten during. Overall crime increased by 24 percent.
Impacts of the Amendments
Some states had banned alcohol before 1919. Religious activists blamed liquor’s mass availability for violence and family problems. The Eighteenth Amendment banned distribution and sale, but not private possession or consumption, though these became difficult without legal purchase.
Dissatisfaction and Repeal
Dissatisfaction grew as public defiance and criminals’ bootlegging proceeded. Tax revenues declined without the alcohol industry. The Twenty-First Amendment’s 1933 repeal recognized Prohibition’s failure.