The great progress of recent years towards school integration has not been uniform: pockets of resistance remain and the issues involved in school desegregation continue to arouse public controversy and confusion. Sixteen years after the Supreme Court (in Brown vs Topeka) had ruled that school segregation compelled or sanctioned by law unconstitutional, there is still no widespread understanding of the nature and scope of the issues. The Civil Rights Commission believes that public understanding of the issues involved in school desegregation is essential if they are to be resolved satisfactorily. Many of these issues are legal in nature and require careful analysis of relevant court decisions. Other issues involve practical questions concerning the quality of education afforded to the Nation's children. Still others relate to fundamental human and moral questions of national conscience. The Commission speaks out in the hope that it can shed light on the issues and, by so doing, contribute to their successful resolution. The issue of school desegregation, like other issues of national concern, has roots deep in history; to understand fully the present situation and to form a sound basis for determining courses of action for the future, what that history has been must first be understood. (Authors/JM).

This is the untold story of a generation that experienced one of the most extraordinary chapters in our nation's history—school desegregation. Many have attempted to define desegregation, which peaked in the late 1970s, as either a success or a failure; surprisingly few have examined the experiences of the students who lived though it. Featuring the voices of blacks, whites, and Latinos who graduated in 1980 from racially diverse schools, Both Sides Now offers a powerful firsthand account of how desegregation affected students—during high school and later in life. Their stories, set in a rich social and historical context, underscore the manifold benefits of school desegregation while providing an essential perspective on the current backlash against it.

The class of 1980 -- Six desegregated high schools -- Racially mixed schools in a separate and unequal society -- We're all the same, aren't we? -- Close together but still apart: friendships across race only went so far -- Why it was worth it -- More diverse than my current life -- But that was a different time -- The souls of desegregated folk.

Segregation by Design draws on more than 100 years of quantitative and qualitative data from thousands of American cities to explore how local governments generate race and class segregation. Starting in the early twentieth century, cities have used their power of land use control to determine the location and availability of housing, amenities (such as parks), and negative land uses (such as garbage dumps). The result has been segregation - first within cities and more recently between them. Documenting changing patterns of segregation and their political mechanisms, Trounstine argues that city governments have pursued these policies to enhance the wealth and resources of white property owners at the expense of people of color and the poor. Contrary to leading theories of urban politics, local democracy has not functioned to represent all residents. The result is unequal access to fundamental local services - from schools, to safe neighborhoods, to clean water.