Social Aspect: Twenty-First Amendment--Repeal of Eighteenth Amendment

The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on December 5, 1933; was an important alteration in the constitution which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, that had ordered nationwide Prohibition. Prohibition in the United States was a period of time between 1920 to 1933 in which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol was illegal. Here we can see the exact text of the 21rst Amendment as written in the Constitution:

 Amendment XXI

SECTION 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the

Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

SECTION 2. The transportation or importation into any

State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery

or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws

thereof, is hereby prohibited.

SECTION 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall

have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in 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 in 1919 was the result that showed the triumph of a movement known as the temperance movement. This was a social movement that urged to reduce the use of alcoholic beverages. Its members were businessmen, church groups, feminists, and social and political reformers who believed in a dry society and that began to demand a permanent national solution to the problem of alcohol consumption.

Nevertheless, the Eighteenth Amendment soon proved to be highly unpopular. Crime rates greatly increased under Prohibition as gangsters made millions of dollars on illegal alcohol sales, and corruption was abundant among law enforcement agencies. When the people that supported the Eighteenth Amendment decided to introduce it, they thought that the effects of alcohol would be recognized in order to decrease the drinking rates among the country, but were very wrong.

Edward Schoeneck, who played an important role
in the amendment's ratification.

As more and more Americans opposed the Eighteenth Amendment, a movement for repeal grew. However, repeal was complicated. Although the US Constitution provides two methods for ratifying constitutional amendments, only one method had been used until then; and it was for vote of the state legislatures by at least three-fourths of the states. However, at the time they knew that the state legislators of many states were in debt to or fearful of the temperance lobby, or even maybe supported them. For this reason, they chose the other ratification method established by Article V, which was by state conventions; after the Congress formally proposed the repeal of Prohibition on February 20th, passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and then sent to the states in1933.

The Congress proposed the Twenty-first Amendment on February 20, 1933 and it was adopted on December 5, 1933. To this date, it is the only amendment to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions, specially selected for the purpose and it is also the only amendment that was passed for the specific purpose of repealing an amendment to the Constitution.

In addition, along with the 18th Amendment, the 21st Amendment greatly changed the way the United States manufactured and sold alcohol. Alcohol consumption would now always be regulated state by state. It allows for a check and balance system to legally and wisely distribute alcohol.