de facto segregation

[ dee fak-toh seg-ruh-gey-shuhn, dey fak-toh ]

noun
  1. racial, ethnic, or other segregation resulting from societal differences between groups, as socioeconomic or political disparity, without institutionalized legislation intended to segregate.

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Origin of de facto segregation

1
First recorded in 1955–60

Words Nearby de facto segregation

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

Cultural definitions for de facto segregation

de facto segregation

[ (di fak-toh, day fak-toh) ]


Racial segregation, especially in public schools, that happens “by fact” rather than by legal requirement. For example, often the concentration of African-Americans in certain neighborhoods produces neighborhood schools that are predominantly black, or segregated in fact (de facto), although not by law (de jure).

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.