Pre-Prohibition saloons were mostly male establishments; post-Prohibition bars catered to both males and females
The Twenty-first Amendment (Amendment XXI) to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition on alcohol
on January 17, 1920. The Twenty-first amendment was ratified on
December 5, 1933. It is unique among the 27 Amendments of the U.S.
Constitution for being the only one to repeal a previous Amendment, and
for being the only one to have been ratified by the method of the state ratifying convention.
Text
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 The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.Section 2.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.
Backgroud
The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution had ushered in a period
of time known as Prohibition, during which the manufacture,
distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages was illegal. Passage of
the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 was the crowning achievement of the temperance movement, but it soon proved highly unpopular. Crime rates soared under Prohibition as gangsters, such as Chicago's Al Capone,
became rich from a profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol.
The federal government was incapable of stemming the tide: enforcement
of the Volstead Act proved to be a nearly impossible task and corruption was rife among law enforcement agencies. In 1932, wealthy industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. stated in a letter:
When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.
As more and more Americans opposed the Eighteenth Amendment, a
political movement grew for its repeal. However, repeal was complicated
by grassroots politics.
Although the U.S. Constitution provides two methods for ratifying
constitutional amendments, only one method had been used up until that
time; and that was for ratification by the state legislatures of
three-fourths of the states. However, the wisdom of the day was that the
lawmakers of many states were either beholden to or simply fearful of
the temperance lobby. For that reason, when Congress
formally proposed the repeal of Prohibition on February 20, 1933 (with
the requisite two-thirds having voted in favor in each house; 63 to 21
in the United States Senate and 289 to 121 in the United States House of Representatives), they chose the other ratification method established by Article V, that being via state conventions. The Twenty-first Amendment is, thus far in American history, the only constitutional amendment ratified by state conventions rather than by the state legislatures.
Proposal and ratification
The Congress proposed the Twenty-first Amendment on February 20, 1933.
The proposed amendment was adopted on December 5, 1933. It is the only amendment to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions, specially selected for the purpose. All other amendments have been ratified by state legislatures.
It is also the only amendment that was approved for the explicit
purpose of repealing a previously-existing amendment to the
Constitution. The Twenty-first Amendment ending national prohibition
became officially effective on December 15, though people started
drinking openly before that date.
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