Racial segregation

Racial segregation is formalized or institutionalized discrimination on the basis of race, such as found in the Southern USA from the Civil War through the 1960's or in the former apartheid system of South Africa.

In the USA institutionalized racial segregation was ended by the efforts of such civil rights activists as Martin Luther King Jr., working during the period from the end of World War II through the passage of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act supported by President Lyndon Johnson.

Although not all advocates concede the validity of the concept of "race", discrimination on color or other ethnic characteristics is often labelled "racist" (see race, racism).