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Prohibition in Massachusetts

February 26, 1933: One of Boston’s better known speakeasies in the North Station district. This one was raided and closed within two months after it opened. Most of the bottles in the picture are empty and are used merely as decoration.Boston Globe Archive/Boston Globe

On December 5, 1933, the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed and Prohibition in the US ended. This national ban on the sale, transportation and manufacture of alcohol started in 1920. Crime had new meaning and the police were busy raiding speakeasies and arresting bootleggers and rum-runners. Opinions were very divided on this issue, as there were people celebrating at the beginning and at the end of the era. - Leanne Burden Seidel and Lisa Tuite