Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution came from Southern Democrats, a trend which remained consistent with Tennessee as the last state to pass the amendment, during a special session right before the ratification period was to expire. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee narrowly approved the Nineteenth Amendment, with 50 of 99 members of the Tennessee House of Representatives voting yes. This provided the final ratification necessary to add the amendment to the Constitution. The Congress proposed the Nineteenth Amendment on June 4, 1919, and the following states ratified the amendment. Ratification was completed on August 18, 1920, and the following states subsequently ratified the amendment: The
Prohibition first state to ratify the amendment; the thirty-sixth state to do so, Nebraska, ratified it on January 16, 1919, assuring its passage into law. On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act, which provided enabling legislation to implement the Eighteenth Amendment. When the National Prohibition Act was passed on October 28, 1919, thirty-three of the forty-eight states were already dry. Congress ratified the Eighteenth Amendment on January 16, 1920; nationwide prohibition began the next day. During the first years of Prohibition, the new law was enforced in regions such as the rural