desegregate

[ dee-seg-ri-geyt ]

verb (used with object)

, de·seg·re·gat·ed, de·seg·re·gat·ing.

1. to eliminate racial segregation in:

   to desegregate all schools.

verb (used without object)

, de·seg·re·gat·ed, de·seg·re·gat·ing.

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

desegregate

/ diːˈsɛɡrɪˌɡeɪt /

verb

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

Derived Forms

• ˌdesegreˈgationist, nounadjective
• ˌdesegreˈgation, noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of desegregate¹

First recorded in 1950–55; de- + segregate

Example Sentences

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

From Slate

Lawson was still living in India when Rosa Parks was famously arrested for refusing to give up her seat in the whites-only front section of a racially segregated bus in Montgomery, Ala. Lawson devoured newspaper stories in the Indian press about the young Atlanta minister, King, who led a successful bus boycott to desegregate Montgomery’s bus system.

From Los Angeles Times

For guidance, the justices can look to the very beginning of Medicare in the 1960s, when the promise of federal funding finally persuaded hospitals in the Jim Crow South to desegregate.

From Seattle Times

In all, segregation levels changed little over the next decade, despite the bravery of Black students like the Little Rock Nine in 1957 and 6-year-old Ruby Bridges in New Orleans in 1960, who faced violent, racist mobs when they tried to desegregate their local schools.

From Seattle Times

And a recording from his son, describing how his father, in the face of competing protests from Black customers fighting for equality and white patrons opposing it, had moved to desegregate the store.

From New York Times

Related Words

• integrate