In September 1970, Congress launched a comprehensive program to make funds available directly to those school districts facing problems associated with school desegregation. The legislation was entitled the Emergency School Assistance Program (ESAP) and took $75 million from previously authorized appropriations. Ten percent of the funds was reserved for programs applied for by public and private non-profit groups. Because of the importance of the community grant program's recognition of the role of non-professionals, the Southern Education Foundation decided to support a preliminary evaluation of the funded programs. This evaluation intends to describe a representative sample of the projects, and consider some questions about their activities in relation to the overall desegregation process. The writer of this report visited 18 projects, a sample of more than 10 percent of all projects funded. Staff and others were interviewed. A program overview and detailed evaluation constitutes the body of the report. (Author/JW)