The Eighteenth Amendment

"Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress."


The Eighteenth Amendment started what is called "Prohibition" by making alcohol consumption, purchases, or sales illegal. This is the only Amendment I believe failed, and knowing the people I do now who love their alcohol; I have no idea how it got passed in the first place. The 18th Amendment started its own era of crime, and took alcohol profits out of the hands of law-abiding citizens and gave it to mobsters like Al Capone. However, it wasn't long till Congress saw the error in their ways and passed the 21st Amendment which repealed the 18th.

This is a picture of a store which will go out of business as soon as prohibition takes affect, so they are trying to sell off all their alcohol before it is illegal. To me the loss of jobs and closing of family owned stores is the saddest part about prohibition. Took money away from good American families and gave it to criminals.

This is a picture of Al Capone one of the most famous mobsters from the prohibition era. When the 18th Amendment took affect people still wanted to drink alcohol. Since it was illegal to buy it from a store they had to buy it from mobsters like Al Capone. With the help of Prohibition, Capone and many mobsters like him grew rich and powerful. The amount of crime in cities skyrocketed through the roof during Prohibition. However, that life style never seems to pay in the end and most of the famous gangsters from the Prohibition era are either dead or locked up.

This is picture is just funny to me, because I know a lot of girls who would be doing the same thing if Prohibition happened today.