Whatever difficulties remain in making school desegregation work, most legal obstacles have been flattened by a combination of legislation and court rulings. Already the civil rights movement is confronting its next frontier: segregated housing. Reformers are finding the challenge there even tougher than the educational color bar has been.
There is law aplenty on the books, including court decisions, federal and state fair-housing regulations and numerous local codes. Yet millions remain confined in ghettos. As the Kerner Commission pointed out, the suburbs often form a white noose around the black inner city. The...