Newspapers declare the end of Prohibition
Federal agents pour confiscated alcohol down a sewer
Campaigners against Prohibition
December 5th 1933: Prohibition ends
On this day in 1933, Prohibition officially ended in the United States upon the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution. Utah was the final state to ratify the amendment, and this gave the measure the required 75% of state approval. The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment of 1920 which had imposed Prohibition, which banned alcohol in the United States. The amendment was the result of a lobbying campaign by conservative Protestants of both parties who argued that alcohol was debilitating to both health and morality. The prohibition movement stemmed from long-running temperance campaigns against alcohol in the nineteenth-century. The alcohol ban raised considerable protest, and led many to brew their own bootleg alcoholic drinks which in turn gave rise to an increase in organised crime and the power of gangsters like Chicago’s infamous Al Capone. As well as widespread opposition, the Great Depression contributed to the end of Prohibition as the ban withheld sorely needed tax revenue from the government during that economic crisis. The momentous passage of the 21st Amendment marked the only time in American history when one amendment has overturned another.
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