desegregate

verb de·seg·re·gate \ (ˌ)dē-ˈse-gri-ˌgāt \

|Updated on: 10 Jul 2018

Examples: desegregate in a Sentence

Definition of desegregate

: to eliminate segregation in; specifically : to free of any law, provision, or practice requiring isolation of the members of a particular race in separate units

intransitive verb

: to become desegregated

See desegregate defined for English-language learners

See desegregate defined for kids

Examples of desegregate in a Sentence

efforts to desegregate the town's buses
Eventually the city's schools desegregated.

Recent Examples of desegregate from the Web

Bu Honor Neal, 14, another critic of the school name, said the school was named in 1958 during efforts to desegregate schools.

— diane smith, star-telegram, "Tyler students push for name change of Robert E. Lee High School," 12 June 2018
The comments come as some Asian groups have protested Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new plan to desegregate city schools.

— anne branigin, The Root, "NYC Schools Chancellor Tells Desegregation Opponents: No One ‘Owns Admission’ to Top Schools," 8 June 2018
Some gun rights advocates have suggested that’s because lower courts have been thumbing their nose at Scalia’s opinion in an act of massive resistance akin to the South’s refusal to desegregate after Brown v. Board of Education.

— joseph blocher and eric ruben, Vox, "The Second Amendment allows for more gun control than you think," 14 June 2018
The 2015 rule required more than 1,200 communities receiving billions of federal housing dollars to draft plans to desegregate their communities - or risk losing federal funds.

— tracy jan, chicagotribune.com, "HUD Secretary Ben Carson to be sued for suspending Obama-era fair-housing rule," 7 May 2018
The formation of the elite Tuskegee Airmen came about because of the pressure civil rights organizations and the black news media put on the United States to desegregate the military.

— brandon patterson, Detroit Free Press, "Tuskegee Airman honored 73 years after being lynched in Austria," 27 May 2018
Racist sentiment is built into the fact that the state government squeezes the funds for public schools, which might technically be desegregated but remain very segregated because the whites who have the money send their children to private schools.

— jesmyn ward, The Atlantic, "How Poverty and Racism Persist in Mississippi," 1 Mar. 2018
But in the Army as a whole, Jim Crow was alive and well: The United States military would be desegregated only in 1948, by executive order of President Harry S. Truman.

— margalit fox, New York Times, "Dovey Johnson Roundtree, Barrier-Breaking Lawyer, Dies at 104," 21 May 2018
In 1960, Curley became the first high school in Miami-Dade to integrate African Americans and the first Catholic school in Florida to desegregate.

— rene rodriguez, miamiherald, "Developer of American Dream Miami mega-mall buys Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School," 14 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'desegregate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of desegregate

1949

in the meaning defined at transitive sense

See Words from the same year

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DESEGREGATE Defined for English Language Learners

desegregate

verb

Definition of desegregate for English Language Learners

: to end a policy that keeps people of different races apart : to end a policy of segregation

DESEGREGATE Defined for Kids

desegregate

verb de·seg·re·gate \ dē-ˈse-gri-ˌgāt \

Definition of desegregate for Students

desegregated; desegregating

: to end by law the separation of members of different races

desegregate schools

Law Dictionary

desegregate

transitive verb de·seg·re·gate \ dē-ˈse-grə-ˌgāt \

legal Definition of desegregate

desegregated; desegregating

: to eliminate segregation in; specifically : to free from any law, provision, or practice requiring isolation of the members of a particular race in separate units

intransitive verb

: to become desegregated