SEGREGATION IN the United States could rightly be considered a conservative sociopolitical practice. Since white racial supremacy had been the norm in both black-white relations and white interaction with Native Americans and Asian Americans as well, any racial ideology initiated by whites without the consent of the other race or races involved would be a manifestation of conservatism. Segregation certainly meets that definitional criterion.

There are two kinds of segregation, de jure and de facto. The former means segregation by law; this type of segregation was once sanctioned by either local or state law and upheld by the courts, even the U.S. Supreme Court. This kind of segregation is no longer allowed. The latter means racial separation that occurs by individual choice, not by law; it ...