Prohibition in the United States

In the history of the United States, Prohibition is the period from 1919 to 1933, during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption are banned nationally as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Prohibition of alcohol can also refer to the antecedent religious and political temperance movements calling for sumptuary laws to end or encumber alcohol use.

Following significant pressure on lawmakers as a result of the temperance movement, the United States Senate had proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 18, 1917.

The 18th Amendment is certified as ratified on January 16, 1919, having been approved by 36 states, and goes into effect on January 16, 1920.

Some state legislatures had already enacted statewide prohibition prior to the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment.The "Volstead Act," the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, had passed Congress over President Woodrow Wilson's veto on October 28, 1919 and established the legal definition of intoxicating liquor as well as providing for enforcement of Prohibition.Mafia and related criminal activities had been restricted until 1920, when they explode because of the introduction of Prohibition.

As Prohibition becomes increasingly unpopular during the Great Depression, especially in large cities, repeal is eagerly anticipated.

On March 23, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signs into law an amendment to the Volstead Act known as the Cullen-Harrison Act, allowing the manufacture and sale of certain kinds of alcoholic beverages.The Eighteenth Amendment is repealed with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, on December 5, 1933.

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