Educational, legal, and political issues affect Northern school desegregation. The United States has failed to meet the challenge of developing a multiracial society in which minority group members are a significant part of the machinery of the national life. Two separate societies, one black and one white, are a reality both educationally and residentially. Black migration patterns, and urban racial composition, implications of migration patterns for education, the role of the federal government, the role of realtors and bankers, local and state government school board action, the failure of open housing laws, changing racial attitudes, segregation and white superiority, the role of the teacher, student achievement and the multiracial classroom, the busing controversy, and the political nature of education are all factors to be considered in school desegregation. The Detroit school desegregation experience was affected by many of these factors. (Author/AM)