Segregation in the United States was effectively abolished through a series of legal and legislative actions during the civil rights movement:
- The Supreme Court took the first major step by declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional in the 1954 landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
- The decisive legislative action came with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, which outlawed segregation in public places such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels, and prohibited employment discrimination.
- Additionally, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 further enforced the end of legal racial segregation.
- Despite these legal ends, enforcement and compliance took years and required ongoing efforts by the courts and civil rights activists.
Thus, while the process began in the 1950s, segregation was abolished primarily by the mid-1960s through these acts.