Five Communities [microform] : Their Search for Equal Education

These reports on school integration in Pasadena (California), Tampa-Hillsborough (Florida), Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Winston-Salem/Forsyth (North Carolina), and Pontiac (Michigan) are based on interviews and material gathered by Commission on Civil Rights staff members from January 10, 1972, through March 29, 1972. In each school district staff members interviewed the superintendent, board members, principals, teachers, and students at elementary and junior and senior high schools, as well as parents of school children. In addition, classrooms were visited and students were observed in daily school activities. The particular schools were selected with the assistance of the superintendent to provide a cross section of experience with integration. Likewise, attempts were made to select for interview teachers, pupils, parents, and board members in such a way as to obtain as wide a range of opinions as possible on school integration. Interviews were also conducted with black and white community leaders or organizations spokesmen with differing viewpoints on school integration. Information obtained through interviews was supplemented by data in court decisions dealing with school desegregation in each district, the desegregation plan for each district, and statistical and background materials provided by school officials of each city. (Author/JM)