Racial integration facts for kids

Planners from the Ekurhuleni Town Planning department on a routine site visit in the Benoni. The team's composition is a reflection of the New South Africa racial integration policies

Racial integration is about people from different backgrounds living and working together. It means creating a society where everyone has equal opportunity. This happens no matter their race.

Integration also means building a culture that uses ideas from many different traditions. It's more than just ending rules that keep people apart. It's about bringing people together socially.

What is the Difference Between Integration and Desegregation?

A white child and black child together at a parade in North College Hill, Ohio, USA

The words integration and desegregation sound similar, but they mean different things.

Desegregation is mainly a legal process. It means stopping laws and rules that separate people based on race. For example, in the United States, desegregation ended the Jim Crow laws. These laws forced Black and white people to use separate schools, bathrooms, and public places.

Integration goes further than desegregation. It's a social process. Integration means that people of different races actually mix and interact in everyday life. It's about everyone having the same chances. It also means people from different backgrounds choose to spend time together.

Understanding Desegregation and Integration

White and black postal clerks sorting mail together, USA, 1890

Historians and writers often explain the difference this way:

• Desegregation breaks down legal barriers. It makes it illegal to separate people by race.
• Integration means people truly come together. It means a Black family moving into a neighborhood that was all white. It means people of different races working and going to school together.

For example, the military in the United States worked towards integration. They wanted people of all races to serve together. They focused on equal treatment and opportunity for everyone.

A writer named Keith M. Woods said that desegregation was the legal fix for segregation. Integration, he explained, happens when a group changes. This happens when people from different backgrounds choose to interact.

Why is This Distinction Important?

The difference between these words helps us understand how society changes. Desegregation is about changing laws. Integration is about changing how people live and interact.

Some people believe that even after desegregation, true integration hasn't fully happened. They say that many people still live, learn, and work mostly with people of their own race. This can make it harder for some groups to feel comfortable in all parts of society.

For example, a Harvard University sociologist named Orlando Patterson said that a big problem for African Americans is being separated from the "tacit norms" of the main culture. This means they might not learn the unspoken rules and ways of acting that are common in wider society.

When the Terms Are Used Together

Sometimes, people use "integration" and "desegregation" to mean the same thing. You might hear "court-ordered integration" or "court-ordered desegregation." Both phrases usually refer to legal actions taken to end racial separation.

However, when these terms are mixed up, "integration" is almost always used in the narrower, legal sense of "desegregation." You rarely hear "desegregation" used to mean the broader social and cultural mixing.

See also

In Spanish: Integración racial para niños