Beginning with the initial attempts to implement the educational provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, this book provides an analytical, historical overview of school desegregation from the mid-sixties through the Carter Administration. Asserting that national interest in desegregation waned as the United States concentrated on the Vietnam War, the book traces what it argues were President Nixon's efforts to make desegregation move slowly. Focusing on a number of central cases (including Alexander v. Holmes, Swann v. Mecklenburg, Adams v. Richardson, Bradley v. Milliken, and Brown III), the book describes Nixon's attempts to pressure the Supreme Court, his firing of Leon Panetta, (Health, Education and Welfare's director of Civil Rights), and his consideration of a constitutional amendment to limit the use of busing. Asserting that the South Boston race riots were the culmination of Nixon's anti-busing position, this book views the Carter administration as considerably more supportive of school desegregation. (KH)