racial segregation

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racial segregation

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Dec 20, 2024 • Article History

Key People:: Patrick Dodson; George Wallace; Morrison Remick Waite; Henry Billings Brown; Lemuel Shaw

Related Topics:: apartheid; separate but equal; ghetto; redlining; township

On the Web:: University of Wisconsin-Madison - Institute for Research on Poverty - A history of residential segregation in the United States (PDF) (Dec. 20, 2024)

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racial segregation, the practice of restricting people to certain circumscribed areas of residence or to separate institutions (e.g., schools, churches) and facilities (parks, playgrounds, restaurants, restrooms) on the basis of race or alleged race. Racial segregation provides a means of maintaining the economic advantages and superior social status of the politically dominant group, and in recent times it has been employed primarily by white populations to maintain their ascendancy over other groups by means of legal and social colour bars. Historically, however, various conquerors—among them Asian Mongols, African Bantus, and American Aztecs—practiced discrimination involving the segregation of subject races. Racial ...(100 of 250 words)

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