The Twenty-First Amendment

All but one of the amendments have been approved by state legislatures. The one exception was the Twenty-First Amendment. This amendment ended Prohibition, the law that banned the manufacture, use, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. In this case, Congress called for state conventions to approve the amendment.

To vote on this amendment, state-wide elections were set up to choose delegates for the state conventions. Delegates had to say ahead of time if they would vote to keep or to end Prohibition.

By December, 1933, the amendment was ratified by constitutional conventions in three-fourths of the states, and Prohibition ended.