desegregation
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
- antidesegregation adjective
- desegregationist noun
Etymology
Origin of desegregation
First recorded in 1950–55; de- + segregation
Explanation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of different racial, religious, or cultural groups. A major goal of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century was desegregation. When you segregate one group of people, you deliberately keep them separate or apart from others. During much of America's history, there has been a policy of segregating African Americans in society — at various times, segregation has existed in the military, housing, jobs, education, and many other areas. Desegregation has attempted to remove this division and to integrate people of all races into the general community. The Latin root is segregatus, "set apart," or "separate from the flock."
Vocabulary lists containing desegregation
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Living in Atlanta in the ’60s and ’70s, she fought for voting rights and school desegregation.
From Slate • Dec. 23, 2025
White enrollment was 55% in 1963 — when the first school desegregation suit was filed — and 37% white in 1976 as the busing dispute peaked.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 5, 2025
Holmes ruling, which ordered the immediate desegregation of Southern schools.
From Salon • Aug. 18, 2025
In addition to Cheney and Thompson, 18 other honorees were recognized at the Thursday ceremony, including a military doctor who improved battlefield trauma care and a civil rights leader who fought for desegregation.
From Salon • Jan. 3, 2025
The school desegregation laws established in 1954 were little more than a piece of paper in Alabama because, thus far, nothing had changed.
From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
