This special report, the fourth of a series commenting on the progress of school desegregation in the South, traces the turn of events since the 1968 report. The influence of the coming of the Nixon administration, the "go slow" approach to desegregation in the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW), changes in policy of OCR and retreat from earlier OCR desegregation policies, the Whitten amendments to the DHEW-Labor appropriations bill, and the delays in the administrative process are surveyed and related to the bill, and the delays in the administrative process are surveyed and related to the attitudes held, the positions taken, and the roles played by the Chief Executive, administrative officials, Senators, Congressmen, and Southern community leaders. Circumstances relating to and the reactions in Mississippi to the July 3, 1969 order are described, with the focus on the role of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples in bringing about a reversal of a decision of the U. S. Fifth Circuit Court to delay school desegregation, culminating in a new Supreme Court ruling on October 29, 1969 affecting the "all deliberate speed" clause of the 1954 Brown decision. The response of local (Southern) community leaders to federal policies and the "weaknesses in Court-ordered desegregation" are also discussed. (RJ)