This volume is a study of individual behavior manifested in the desegregation process of 31 Georgia school districts from 1965 to 1974. Major objectives of the study are to glean insight into the variables that determine whether school officials involved would comply with the law and to assess the impact of Federal desegregation guidelines. The literature on compliance attitudes and behavior is reviewed. The Georgia communities in the study sample are described and some activities undertaken in reaction to integration orders are detailed. In an attempt to measure change over time, variables in the Georgia situation are defined as coercion, black activism, organized white opposition to desegregation, and superintendent attitudes, while the dependent variable is defined as the ratio of black to white students in each school. Coercion is concluded to have been the most important factor in achieving desegregation. Compliance with desegregation mandates is discussed in relation to citizen attitudes toward law obedience. The processes by which Federal agencies began to threaten withholding educational funds to recalcitrant districts is explored. Changes instituted as the schools in the sample began to comply with desegregation guidelines are outlined. Implications of the findings for legal impact analyses, for using law as an agent of change, and for achieving school integration in the North are suggested. A bibliography of works on desegregation compliance and impact is also included. (Author/GC)