A patron knocks at the door of a speakeasy with peephole. Speakeasies were popular during the Prohibition years and many were operated by organized crime. Though police and agents of the Bureau of Prohibition would often raid them and arrest their owners and patrons, they were so profitable that they continued to flourish. The speakeasy soon become one of the biggest parts of American culture during this time. Prohibition in the US was a nationwide Constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. Prohibition was mandated under the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. Nationwide Prohibition ended with the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, on December 5, 1933. No location or photographer credited.