21st Amendment

View item information

Governor Laffoon handing gavel to Laura Clay as Temporary Chairman of the Kentucky Convention to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, 1933. Courtesy of the University of Kentucky Special Collections Library.

Prohibition in the United States officially ended after 14 years, with the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment specifically repealed the 18th Amendment (which prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors in the United States) and returned control of alcohol regulation to individual states, only banning transportation of alcohol when it violated local laws. Many states opted to remain dry, though none are completely dry today. Many states now delegate alcohol regulation to counties and municipalities. 

The 21st Amendment is the only constitutional amendment to date to repeal a previous amendment, and also the only one to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions rather than state legislatures; this method was chosen so that average citizens could weigh in on this sensitive issue without political pressure from the temperance lobby. 38 state conventions ratified the amendment, which officially took effect on December 15, 1933.