Racial segregation means separating people because of their races. Segregation was legal and normal in many countries across the world, for many years. For example, until 1964, it was still legal to separate white and African-American people in some states. In South Africa, from the 1940s until the 1990s, a system called apartheid kept white and black South Africans separate. Racial segregation has happened in many other countries, throughout history.