Andrew J. Volstead (1860-1947), a Republican congressman from Minnesota, was regarded as the father of Prohibition.

Andrew J. Volstead (1860-1947), a Republican congressman from Minnesota, was regarded as the father of Prohibition. | AP Photo

Alcoholic beverages legalized as Prohibition repealed: Dec. 5, 1933

On this day in 1933, at 5:32 p.m. Eastern time, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Utah’s action repealed the 18th Amendment by achieving the needed approval of three-fourths of the states. It brought an end to an era in which Americans could not legally consume alcohol. Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified the amendment earlier that day.

In December 1917, Congress had approved the 18th Amendment, which banned the “manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes.” By Jan. 29, 1919, the necessary three-fourths majority of the states had ratified it, allowing the amendment to take effect a year later.

Story Continued Below

To enforce the amendment, on Oct. 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. The act created a 1,500-man unit within the Treasury Department which, in its first six months of activity, destroyed tens of thousands of illicit stills run by bootleggers.

In many cities, however, speakeasies flourished. Federal agents and corrupt local police forces did little more than slow the flow of contraband alcohol. Meanwhile, criminal gangs built illegal distribution networks even as state and local governments forfeited billions of dollars in potential tax revenue.

Songs emerged decrying the act. After Edward, Prince of Wales, returned to Great Britain in 1919, after touring Canada, he told his father, King George V, about one that he had heard sung at a Canadian border town:

Four and twenty Yankees, feeling very dry,
Went across the border to get a drink of rye.
When the rye was opened, the Yanks began to sing,
"God bless America, but God save the King!”

Throughout the 1920s, the amendment’s backers remained confident that Congress and the states would never favor repeal. One of its drafters, Sen. Morris Sheppard (D-Texas), said at the time, “There is as much chance of repealing the 18th Amendment as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail.”

Despite such views, as the decade progressed, Prohibition began to lose popular support in many sections of the country, climaxing in the amendment’s repeal — although some “Bible Belt” states retained temperance laws. In 1966, Mississippi became the final state to end Prohibition.


Jump to sidebar section