The development of the alcoholic beverage control system in North Carolina

It was the purpose of this study to trace the development of the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) system in North Carolina after the repeal of national prohibition, with an emphasis on legislative enactments. On the basis of an examination of legislative records, contemporary newspapers and magazines, and manuscript materials, several conclusions appear valid. For a considerable time after the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, there continued to be strong prohibition sentiment in North Carolina, especially in the western half of the state. Strongest support for legislation to legalize the sale of liquor came from the rural eastern section of the state. During the early period of development of the state's ABC system, sectionalism appears to have been the strongest factor in determining the pattern of development. In later years, particularly after 1960, prohibition sentiment tended to be concentrated in rural areas with cities in all sections of the state favoring legalized liquor. During the period under study, four major laws regulating the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages were passed: the Alcoholic Beverage Control act (1937); the Beverage Control act (1939); the Fortified Wine act (1941); and the "brown bagging" act (1967). For the most part, North Carolina's liquor laws have been hastily drawn and passed. As a result, the laws are vague and sometimes contradictory. Nevertheless, the majority of North Carolina's citizens have evidently come to feel that the ABC system works well. At the present time, ABC stores are located in eighty-two of the one hundred counties of the state