Includes bibliographical references (p. 363-409) and index.

Leading decisions on desegregation 1896-1995 -- Turning back to segregation -- Plessy parallels : back to traditional assumptions -- The growth of segregation : African Americans, Latinos, and unequal education -- Unexpected costs and uncertain gains of dismantling desegregation -- Broken promises : resegregation in Norfolk, Virginia -- Still separate, still unequal : the limits of Milliken II's monetary compensation to segregated schools -- Desegregation at risk : threat and reaffirmation in Charlotte -- Slipping toward segregation : local control and eroding desegregation in Montgomery County -- Money and choice in Kansas City : major investments with modest returns -- Magnets, media, and mirages : Prince George's county's "Miracle" Cure -- Segregated housing and school resegregation -- Toward an integrated future : new directions for courts, educators, civil rights groups, policymakers and scholars.

For the first time since 1954, school segregation is actually increasing for African American students. In several rarely discussed decisions, including one as recent as June 1995, the Supreme Court has opened the door for wide-scale abandonment of desegregation plans. This "quiet reversal" of Brown v. Board of Education, now brought boldly into the open by Orfield and Eaton, has threatened to dismantle desegregation. With stinging profiles of school districts nationwide that have turned their back on the promise of Brown, they analyze this devastating trend, offering evidence and solutions guaranteed to stimulate national debate about the state of our schools today. Profiles of school districts across the country highlight the kind of in-school discrimination and residential segregation issues that most communities have refused to address.