The 21st amendment to the Constitution repealed the 18th amendment to the Constitution. This action was taken because the eighteenth amendment wasn’t working. Th eighteenth amendment banned the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages. It sounded like a good idea because some people believed that alcohol caused many problems such as crime, divorce, and poor displays of public behavior because of being drunk.

However, most Americans still wanted to drink. They didn’t let this amendment stop them from doing so. They formed secret clubs, called speakeasies, where they would go and drink. Organized crime took over the process of supplying the alcohol. Even President Harding would drink and play poker in the White House. Mayor LaGuardia was known to have said he would have to hire hundreds of thousands of police just to police the police!!!

When the Great Depression occurred, jobs could be created in the alcohol industry if drinking was legal. This idea, along with the fact that prohibition wasn’t working, led to the passage of the 21st amendment in 1933. The manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol were legal again.

The 18th Amendment was repealed because too many Americans did not support Prohibition.

There were at least two reasons for this.  First, there was the fact that not enough Americans thought that drinking was really such a bad thing.  They thought that it was fun to go out to speakeasies and have some drinks and listen to bands play.  When the majority of people don't respect a law, it can't really survive.

Second, there was the fact that Prohibition was helping organized crime.  Gangsters were getting rich bootlegging.  This led to a lot of violence that helped turn people off of Prohibition.