Desegregation (sometimes called integration, but not to be confused with mathematical integration) is a term used to describe the process of ending racial segregation, most usually used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the US civil rights movement, particularly desegregation of the school systems.

In 1957, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower enforced the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation order by sending troops to Little Rock, Arkansas when the Governor of the state resisted allowing black students (known as the Little Rock Nine) to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School. see also: Little Rock Integration Crisis

In 1971 the Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously that busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.