The complex interactions which led to the implementation of the court-ordered desegregation plans for two cities in Massachusetts involve not only the courts but many levels of government. The school departments, the school committees, the mayors, the State Board of Education, the legislature, the governor, and the citizens of Massachusetts, all have varying perspectives, all exert different degrees of influence. This study is an attempt to sort out these persepctives and measure their influences. An examination of the forces leading to desegregation in Boston and Springfield go beyond local activities. It places Massachusetts events in the context of the legal and social developments in school desegregation which have occupied national attention for at least the last 20 years. A survey of constitutional doctrine, federal legislation, civil rights activities, the movement toward community control of schools, and the antibusing backlash, gives new significance to Boston and Springfield desegregation plans and the controversies from which they have emerged. The lesson that can be learned from the study of the progress toward racial balance in Boston and Springfield is clear; regardless of the inherent difficulties or the strength of the opposing forces, an ideal as powerful as that of equal educational opportunity cannot be thwarted indefinitely. What is not clear is whether the ideal will have an impact on the real world. (Author/AM)