Desegregation

School desegregation refers to the process of ending or minimizing racial separation of students in schools, or overcoming the effects of residential segregation on local school demographics. The Brown v. Board of Education ruling of 1954, which prohibited de jure segregation and became the cornerstone of the social justice movement of the 1950s and 1960s, led to desegregation programs that substantially reshuffled students across schools. As a result, progress was made toward a more balanced racial composition of schools.

This entry discusses the nature of school desegregation policies that followed the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, measures of segregation or desegregation, and the effects of school desegregation policies on school enrollment patterns, as well as on student achievement. As the term school desegregation is usually ...