Civics
Unit 1
Name___________________________
Date___________________ Per._____
RATIFICATION OF 21ST AMENDMENT ENDS PROHIBITION
http://www.history.com/topics/18th-and-21st-amendments
On Dec. 5, 1933, national Prohibition came to an end, as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the
21st Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment repealed the 18th Amendment, which had
taken effect nearly 14 years earlier.
The New York Times noted that President Franklin Roosevelt made a “plea to the
American people to employ their regained liberty first of all for national manliness.”
The president also said, “This return of individual freedom shall not be accompanied
by the repugnant conditions that obtained prior to the adoption of the Eighteenth
Amendment and those that have existed since its adoption.”
Prohibition was introduced after decades of campaigning by a
nationwide temperance movement, which argued that alcohol
consumption caused poor health, hurt families, and increased crime
and bad behavior. The 18th Amendment, ratified in 1919 and put into
effect in January 1920, banned the “manufacture, sale, or
transportation of intoxicating liquors.”
Many advocates of Prohibition believed that it would be a cure-all for
society’s problems. The well-known evangelist Rev. Billy Sunday
proclaimed, “The slums will soon be a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails
into storehouses and corncribs. Men will walk upright now, women will smile and children will laugh.”
Prohibition would have the opposite effect, however. It led to a rise in organized crime and the
establishment of a large black-market for alcohol smuggling and trade, a practice known as
bootlegging. Many Americans ignored Prohibition laws, drinking alcohol at secret bars and clubs
known as “speakeasies.” Government agencies were unable to halt the flow of alcohol, due to a lack
of funding and resources, and, in some cases, corruption. Prohibition cost the government hundreds
of millions of dollars in law enforcement and lost tax revenue from the sale of alcohol.
By the end of the 1920s, even many prominent Prohibition advocates realized that Prohibition had
failed and advocated for its repeal. Congress passed the 21st Amendment in February 1933. It was
ratified by a series of state conventions rather than by state legislatures, which have been used to
ratify every other amendment, as Congress felt that many state legislators remained beholden to proProhibition interests.
Connect to Today:
The federal government currently bans the use and sale of marijuana, but there is a growing
movement to legalize it. An October 2015 Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans support the
legalization of marijuana.
Here are states with legal recreational
marijuana:
1. Alaska
2. Colorado
3. Oregon
4. Washington
Here are states with medical marijuana:
1. Alaska
13. Minnesota
2. Arizona
14. Montana
3. California
15. Nevada
4. Colorado
16. New Hampshire
5. Connecticut
17. New Jersey
6. Delaware
18. New Mexico
7. Hawaii
19. New York
8. Illinois
20. Oregon
9. Maine
21. Rhode Island
10. Maryland
22. Vermont
11. Massachusetts
23. Washington
12. Michigan
What similarities, if any, do you see between Prohibition and the federal ban on marijuana? What are
some differences? Given the increasing public support for its legalization, do you think the ban on
marijuana will be repealed in your lifetime? Why or why not?