Time Trip - 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Prohibition - Brief Article

Current Events, Nov 17, 2000

* At one point in U.S. history, it was illegal for Americans of any age to drink alcoholic beverages. In 1919, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. That amendment, which went into effect in 1920, prohibited the making and selling of "intoxicating liquors." The period during which this ban was in effect is known as Prohibition.

* Prohibition didn't stop a lot of Americans from drinking alcohol, however. Many people went on drinking in secret, They started going to illegal bars called "speakeasies"

* Alcohol was supplied to speakeasies by "bootleggers," who sold liquor they made themselves or smuggled in from other countries. The term bootlegger comes from the smugglers' trick of hiding bottles of alcohol in the legs of their tall boots. The bootlegger pictured above, however, chose to hide her goods under her coat.

* Prohibition lasted from 1920 until 1933, when Congress submitted the 21st Amendment to the states to repeal the 18th Amendment. The 18th Amendment is the only constitutional amendment that has ever been repealed.

* Prohibition came about as a result of the temperance movement, which urged temperance, the reduction or elimination of alcoholic beverages. The temperance movement gained steam in 1874, with the formation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). One member of the WCTU was Carry A. Nation. Nation believed she had a divine calling to destroy saloons with her hatchet. She called these rages "hatchetations."