Prohibition in the United States
The Prohibition Era was a period in United States history during which alcohol was outlawed. Police would arrest people was found making or selling alcohol illegally.
Prohibition was established by the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It became ratified by the states by January 16, 1919. It came into effect on January 16, 1920 and lasted until 1933.
The Women's Christian Temperance Union and other reformist organizations agitated for the change to improve the lives of the people. Prohibition was set up by the American government in an effort to decrease crime rates, reduce tax burden, and improve public health. It had little to do with the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
The punishment for being caught with an alcoholic beverage was jail time. The millions of people becoming criminals in such a short period of time led to overflowing prisons, which was one reason for many cases to be dismissed.
Prohibition led to reduced consumption of alcohol but led the Mafia and other underground organizations to take up up rum-running. The demand of alcohol caused illegal bar. Called speakeasies, they hid the illegal alcohol and could be a proper pub or also simply in their owner's basement.
Prohibition was repealed on December 5, 1933 by the Twenty-first Amendment. Since then, states regulate the selling of liquor by themselves.
Prohibition In The United States Media
Michigan and Detroit policemen inspect the equipment used in a clandestine brewery in a bust.
This 1902 illustration by Rea Irvin from the Hawaiian Gazette newspaper humorously illustrates the Anti-Saloon League and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union's campaign against the producers and sellers of beers in Hawaii. The "water cure" was a torture device.
Governor James P. Goodrich signs the Indiana Prohibition Act, 1917.
A 1915 political cartoon by Oscar Cesare criticizing the alliance between the prohibitionists and women's suffrage movements, showing the Genii of Intolerance, labelled "Prohibition", emerging from its bottle
After the 36th state adopted the amendment on January 16, 1919, the U.S. Secretary of State had to issue a formal proclamation declaring its ratification.
A 1919 Budweiser ad from Anheuser-Busch, announcing the reformulation of its flagship beer as required under the Act, ready for sale by 1920
A prescription for medicinal alcohol during prohibition
A policeman with a wrecked automobile and confiscated moonshine, 1922
A 1933 newsreel about the end of Prohibition
An animated map of alcohol prohibition in the United States (1880–2025)
