color line

[kuhl-er lahyn]

noun

1. Also called color bar. social or political restriction or distinction based on differences of skin pigmentation, as between white and Black people.

Word History and Origins

Origin of color line¹

An Americanism dating back to 1860–65

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. draw the color line, to observe a color line.

Example Sentences

When Jackie Robinson entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, his informational plaque didn’t mention that he had broken baseball’s color line.

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Historically, it has fallen to young, poor and working-class people on both sides of the color line to make that sacrifice.

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Du Bois famously observed that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.”

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She described how recent protests against police violence are affecting her understanding of America’s color line.

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His manager was Spider Jorgensen, whose big league debut in 1947 had been somewhat overshadowed by teammate Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color line that day.

Read more on Los Angeles Times