The Brown decision of 1954 occurred when Blacks, who were migrating into the North in large numbers, became a highly visible political minority. Widespread interest in school integration on the part of the dominant majority stemmed more from a concern about societal integration than about the welfare of disadvantaged children. The Brown decision began as a demand by the politically dominant North that the South end its legal segregation by race in education. Over time, however, the civil rights movement pressured government into taking action against northern segregation as well. The pattern of "acceptable" school desegregation was eventually determined by a series of court decisions in local cases, and the executive branch of the Federal government also began to play a visible role following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. During the Nixon Administration, despite the president's opposition to integration, the desegregation movement became more unified, and in 1970 the largest amount of school desegregation ever to take place occurred in the Southeast. This massive desegregation happened smoothly, in a non-confrontational mode. Perhaps if the methods used to enforce the Brown decision had been different, the history of school desegregation would have been less conflict-ridden. (KH)