In effort to desegregate the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, the court examined various types of desegregation plans proposed by the school system. Situations in which racial segregation occured despite facially neutral language in the plan were considered "de facto segregation."
De Facto Segregation
During racial integration efforts in schools during the 1960’s, “de facto segregation” was a term used to describe a situation in which legislation did not overtly segregate students by race, but nevertheless school segregation continued.
This Court has not had to deal with nonracially motivated de facto segregation, that is, racial imbalance resulting fortuitously in a school system based on a single neighborhood school serving all white and Negro children in a certain attendance area or neighborhood.
