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Prohibition Era facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
5 Prohibition Disposal(9)
Removal of liquor during Prohibition.

The Prohibition Era was a period in United States history when alcohol was outlawed. Police would arrest anyone who was found making or selling alcohol illegally. The Women's Christian Temperance Union and other reformist organizations agitated for this change. Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933. It was established by the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was ratified (approved by the states) by January 16, 1919. It came into effect at January 16, 1920.

Prohibition was good as the consumption of alcohol was reduced, but it was bad in that the Mafia and other underground organizations took up rum-running. They became big and powerful and made trouble. Prohibition was repealed December 5, 1933 by the Twenty-first Amendment. Now states can regulate the selling of liquor by themselves.

Images for kids

  • Detroit police prohibition

    Detroit police in a clandestine brewery during the Prohibition era

  • WeinWeibUGesang

    "Who does not love wine, wife and song, will be a fool his whole life long!" (Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib & Gesang / Bleibt ein Narr sein Leben lang.)

  • Indiana Goes Dry 1917

    Governor James P. Goodrich signs the Indiana Prohibition Act, 1917

  • 19190117 Prohibition - Eighteenth Amendment - The New York Times

    After the 36th state adopted the amendment on January 16, 1919, the U.S. Secretary of State had to issue a formal proclamation declaring its ratification. Implementing and enforcement bills had to be presented to Congress and state legislatures, to be enacted before the amendment's effective date one year later.

  • Policeman and wrecked car and cases of moonshine

    A policeman with wrecked automobile and confiscated moonshine, 1922

  • 5 Prohibition Disposal(9) (cropped)

    Removal of liquor during Prohibition

  • Prohibition prescription front

    A Prohibition-era prescription used by U.S. physicians to prescribe liquor as medicine

  • Rehoboth WCTU Fountain (Sussex County, Delaware)

    A temperance fountain erected by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union during the Prohibition era in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

  • Raceland Louisiana Beer Drinkers Russell Lee

    Men and women drinking beer at a bar in Raceland, Louisiana, September 1938. Pre-Prohibition saloons were mostly male establishments; post-Prohibition bars catered to both males and females.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Ley seca en los Estados Unidos para niños

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