December 5, 1933
The 1919 ratification of the 18th Amendment, which created a nationwide ban on the manufacture, sale and transportation of “intoxicating liquors,” capped years of effort by temperance reformers, who deemed alcohol a national curse responsible for a wide range of social ills.
But by the time the Roaring ’20s gave way to the Great Depression, Prohibition came to represent the very ills and excesses it sought to address.
The rise of organized crime syndicates, spurred by a flourishing bootlegging industry, gave momentum to calls in the early 1930s for a 21st Amendment repealing the “noble experiment.”
Mindful that local legislators would be reluctant to alienate powerful temperance groups, advocates of repeal endorsed state conventions to which delegates were elected to support or reject repeal. The strategy worked, and when—on this date—Utah became the 36th state to approve the 21st Amendment, Prohibition came to an end.
