This paper discusses the potential of individual States for encouraging voluntary desegregation at the local level. Desegregation history and State strategies in five States--California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Washington--are closely examined. In all of the States studied, State laws provide the State agency with considerable…

Reviews the development of magnet schools as an alternative to the politics that accompany other desegregation tactics, and discusses arguments for and against magnets. Focuses on the successful magnet schools of Kankakee, Illinois, a city with a small but socioeconomically diverse population, where desegregation was voluntary and parental…