18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Prohibition), the Amendment That Drowned in Infamy

Note: in the Covid pandemic hysteria, governors were allowed to define essential businesses. Most defined liquor stores and pot stores as essential businesses. Had they learned from the earlier prohibition? Most likely the decisions were self serving, as the tax revenues from the liquor stores and pot stores helped keep the governors salary going. The arbitrary decision making may go down in history as a time in infamy, as did the prohibition

18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Prohibition)

On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act providing for enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified nine months earlier. Known as the ProhibitionAmendment, it prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” in the United States.
The 18th Amendment (PDF, 91KB) to the Constitution prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors…” and was ratified by the states on January 16, 1919. The movement to prohibit alcohol began in the United States in the early nineteenth century. On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act (PDF, 2.03MB), which provided for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment. Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933, with the ratification of the 21st Amendment (PDF, 88KB).

On January 16, 1919, States ratified the 18th Amendment ushering in the Prohibition Era. This guide provides access to material related to the “Prohibition Amendment” in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers.

In an effort to make the nation “bone dry” and protect families from the effects of alcohol abuse, breweries, saloons, and distilleries are forced to close their doors after the ratification of the 18th Amendment on January 16, 1919. Ushering in the Prohibition Era, the legal enforcement of the law one year later sent the message of “let rum alone” to Americans, but also gave rise to the illegal production and sale of liquor and increased gang-related violence. Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The temperance movement, discouraging the use of alcoholic beverages, had been active and influential in the United States since at least the 1830s. Since the use of alcohol was often associated with such social ills as poverty and insanity, temperance often went hand in hand with other reform movements. From the 1850s onward, the temperance movement focused much of its efforts on Irish and German immigrants.

Temperance advocates did not always emphasize prohibiting the consumption of alcohol. But by the late 19th century, they did. The prohibition movement achieved initial successes at the local and state levels. It was most successful in rural southern and western states, and less successful in more urban states. By the early 20th century, prohibition was a national movement.

Prohibition exhibited many of the characteristics of most progressive reforms. That is, it was concerned with the moral fabric of society; it was supported primarily by the middle classes; and it was aimed at controlling the “interests” (liquor distillers) and their connections with venal and corrupt politicians in city, state, and national governments. Still, it was not until U.S. entry into the Great War that prohibitionists were able to secure enactment of national legislation. In 1918, Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the Constitition, prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. States ratified the Amendment the next year.

Herbert Hoover called prohibition a “noble experiment,” but the effort to regulate people’s behavior soon ran into trouble. Enforcement of prohibition became very difficult. Soon, such terms as “bootlegger,” “bath tub gin,” and “speakeasy” became household words. Gangs of hoodlums became more powerful as they trafficked in alcohol. By the 1930s, a majority of Americans had tired of the noble experiment, and the 18th Amendment was repealed.