desegregate

American  

[dee-seg-ri-geyt] / diˈsɛg rɪˌgeɪt /

verb (used with object)

• desegregates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• desegregated,
  past participle,  past
• desegregating
  present participle

1. to eliminate racial segregation in.

   to desegregate all schools.

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verb (used without object)

• desegregates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• desegregated,
  past participle,  past
• desegregating
  present participle

1. to eliminate racial segregation; to integrate at an institutional level members of different communities without regard to skin color.

desegregate British  

/ diːˈsɛɡrɪˌɡeɪt /

verb

1. to end racial segregation in (a school or other public institution)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• desegregation
  noun
• desegregationist
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• desegregating
  present
• desegregated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• desegregate
  simple
• desegregates
  simple
• have desegregated
  perfect
• has desegregated
  perfect
• am desegregating
  progressive
• are desegregating
  progressive
• is desegregating
  progressive
• have been desegregating
  perfect progressive
• has been desegregating
  perfect progressive

Past

• desegregated
  simple
• had desegregated
  perfect
• was desegregating
  progressive
• were desegregating
  progressive
• had been desegregating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will desegregate
  simple
• will have desegregated
  perfect
• will be desegregating
  progressive
• will have been desegregating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of desegregate

First recorded in 1950–55; de- + segregate

Explanation

To desegregate is to stop separating groups of people by race, religion, or ethnicity. When a city desegregates its schools, it makes sure that all schools have racially diverse populations. The verb desegregate is the opposite of segregate, or "separate by race or religion." Both words are often used in connection with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. In 1954, the Brown v Board of Education case desegregated public schools in the U.S., ruling that separate publicly funded schools for black and white students were unconstitutional.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

desegregate desegregates desegregated desegregating

Yvonne Lee Odom helped desegregate public schools in the 1960s, becoming the first black student to attend public school in Delray Beach, Florida.

From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026

Since his appointment in 2017, Saudi Arabia has reined in its religious police, lifted a ban on women driving, allowed restaurants and cafes to desegregate by gender and promoted cinema and music events.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 14, 2026

At 14, she was one of the so-called Clinton 12, the first Black students to desegregate a Southern public school following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2025

It required federal litigation to desegregate the public golf course and the city’s airport.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2024

The international audience, and their opinion of US racial problems, were beginning to matter—a lot—to American leaders, and concern for their opinion influenced Truman’s 1947 decision to desegregate the military through Executive Order 9981.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

Whether or not Lovett ever caves in to the pickets and desegregates, the diocese has already been bitterly divided by the situation, and it may take years for the ill will to dissolve.

From Time Magazine Archive

Sure enough, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare last month threatened to withhold federal funds from Ohio's Antioch College unless the school desegregates its blacks-only Afro-American Studies Institute, which opened last fall.

From Time Magazine Archive

As a young man, he attended a newly desegregated high school in Terre Haute and was friendly with students of all colors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt desegregated the Army after World War II. Later, women were given broader roles, including, now, in combat.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2024

Board of Education decision that desegregated public schools in law if not in life, he realized, he says, that “there was a whole cultural and social order based upon differences between white and Black people.”

From New York Times ● May 16, 2024

Law led the civil rights campaign that peacefully desegregated the city’s schools, stores and restaurants in 1963.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 11, 2023

But that changed when the federal government ordered the hospitals to be desegregated: within just seven years, the black infant mortality rate had been cut in half.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt

And the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare used the leverage those funds provided to press schools into desegregating.

From Slate ● Feb. 6, 2025

The original song, written by Paul McCartney, is reportedly an ode to Little Rock Nine's bravery in desegregating schools in Arkansas during the late '60s.

From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2024

Tyler, 16 at the time, was in a cohort of Black students desegregating Destrehan High School in a New Orleans suburb.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2023

Stern mostly avoided topical poems, but he was a longtime political activist whose causes included desegregating a swimming pool in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and organizing an anti-apartheid reading at the University of Iowa.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 29, 2022

As the new minister at the Church of Christ on Texas and Clements streets on the Southside, he undertook the challenge of desegregating the schools and obliterating the boundary of the railroad tracks.

From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger

Related Words

• integrate