Table 1 summarizes the number of districts in cases resulting in a mandated desegregation plan, categorized by the date of the initial decision.  This figure demonstrates the very strong focus on Southern states (787 districts) compared to the North (307 districts).  Although school segregation has always been a national concern, it was particularly in many Southern states that public policy mandated that white and black student attend different schools.  Many early political and legal battles therefore focused on districts in the South.  Note that the cases affecting most Southern districts were decided in the period 1963-1970.  Only 94 non-Southern districts had been involved in such cases through 1970.  But desegregation plans ordered after this time were concentrated outside the South.

Although only 1,094 districts were directly affected by these cases, they represent a very large share of the black elementary school population.  In the South, 74.8% of black elementary students in 2000 (out of a total 2.6 million) were enrolled in districts that had been mandated to desegregate at some point during the 1950-1994 period.  In the remainder of the country the figure is lower but still substantial: 61.9% (out of a total 2.0 million black students).