Amendment, Eighteenth

Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1919, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol. It was enforced by the Volstead Act in 1919 but repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933. (See also Prohibition.)

The Eighteenth Amendment was the culmination of a long campaign by the Anti-Saloon League, established in 1893, and by church and women's organizations and temperance societies. The law, however, was widely ignored, and public opinion forced its repeal in 1933.