What does desegregated mean?
Desegregated functions both as the past tense and past participle of the verb 'to desegregate' and as an adjective describing places or institutions from which racial segregation has been removed. To desegregate something — a school, a bus line, a military unit, a neighborhood — means to end the enforced separation of people by race, allowing them to share the same spaces and services. The adjective typically appears in phrases like 'desegregated schools' or 'a desegregated army.' The word is deeply tied to the American civil rights movement: landmark events such as the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and the 1957 integration of Little Rock Central High School made desegregation central to national debate, and the term remains standard in historical and journalistic writing about that era. It is formal in tone and generally positive in connotation, implying progress toward equality. Closely related forms include the verb 'desegregate' and the noun 'desegregation,' which names the process itself.
(Of a school, institution, area, etc.) having had racial segregation removed so that all groups share facilities equally.
"He grew up attending a desegregated public school in Atlanta."
Almost always used with reference to race, especially in the context of American civil rights history.
Past tense and past participle of desegregate: ended the policy or practice of separating people by race within an institution or place.
"The armed forces were formally desegregated by executive order in 1948."
When nine Black students walked into Arkansas' Little Rock Central High School in 1957 under armed federal protection, they made 'desegregated' one of the most consequential words of twentieth-century America.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of desegregated
Desegregated derives from the verb 'desegregate,' formed by adding the reversal prefix de- to 'segregate.' Segregate comes from Latin segregare, meaning to set apart from the flock or herd, built on grex/gregis ('flock, herd') — the same root behind 'gregarious,' 'aggregate,' and 'congregation.' The compound 'desegregate' arose in American English during the twentieth century as the civil rights movement demanded the undoing of legally mandated racial separation.
Related word forms
How desegregated is actually used
The word is most strongly associated with American civil-rights history, particularly mid-twentieth-century efforts to end racial segregation in schools, transportation, and public facilities. It carries a formal register and appears frequently in historical, journalistic, and academic writing.
Easily confused with desegregated
'Segregated' means divided by race or category, while 'desegregated' means that such separation has been removed.