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Despite strong progress toward school desegregation in the late 20^thcentury, many locations in the Upper South have recently experienced school resegregation. The articles in this issue investigate similarities and differences across this region in attitudes underlying these developments. Individual papers treat factors including resident location within and across school districts, as well as the role of school choice. Papers also advocate for combining the results of case studies and opinion polls in elucidating these dynamics. The issue concludes with a look forward regarding the social and political forces that will contribute to whether or not the Supreme Court’s mandate, based on Brown v. Board of Education, will be realized by its 100^thanniversary in 2054. 

Attitudes toward diversity and neighborhood schools matter because they underlie many families’ decisions for residential location, with consequences for both school systems and students. Case studies of desegregation highlight locational dynamics that influence these outcomes, but differences in theory and methods limit rigorous comparisons among residents across such areas. This study focuses on two under-researched correlates of these preferences toward school assignment models: school district location and length of residence in that district. We evaluate whether school district location and length of residence decrease support for diverse schools and increase support for neighborhood schools, net of numerous controls. We use an innovative new dataset that features opinion polling of respondents’ views of public school assignments in Raleigh, NC; Charlotte, NC; Louisville, KY; Rock Hill, SC; and Nashville, TN (5302 cases). We find that compared to having lived in a school district 7 years or less, living in that district over 15 years decreases support for diversity. Furthermore, living all one’s life in a district increases support for neighborhood schools. We also find that Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Rock Hill, and Nashville districts are less supportive of neighborhood schools than Raleigh, but that there are also interactive effects between length of residence and school district location. These results shed light on district differences in social forces leading to school resegregation.