School flight and school policy: Desegregation and resegregation in the Memphis City Schools

Many white students were lost from Memphis public schools during the years 1970-1976. Ethnographic data from a continuing study of a desegregated Memphis high school provide some explanations for this phenomenon. Two kinds of factors are involved: 'push' factors include a limited county school system plus private, church-sponsored academies, while 'pull' factors include questions of educational quality (with focus on discipline & curriculum flexibility) & student status systems control. The 'white flight' situation is complex: further investigation should approach this problem as a two-step process, to determine whether students are leaving school as a result of desegregation, & then whether they subsequently leave the city. D. Abrahams.