18th Amendment Research Paper

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A peculiar aspect of American history occurred in 1919 when the US Congress passed a constitutional amendment banning the sale of alcoholic drinks. After almost a century of agitation, Congress enacted the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages. Intended to eliminate the saloon and the drunkard from American society, Prohibition created thousands of illegal drinking places called “speakeasies,” made intoxication fashionable, and created a new form of criminal activity — the transportation of illegal liquor, or “bootlegging.” Control over the now illegal liquor industry handed the organized crime a profitable new business. In major cities, law enforcement officers found

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