The authors concern themselves primarily with 2 effects of a school desegregation plan during the semester of its inception in Gainesville, Florida. One deals with the amount of interaction between blacks and whites on the school grounds; the other concerns their attitudes toward each other. Interaction was measured, through observation during the 3rd, 8th and 13th weeks of the semester. Low frequencies of interaction were obtained throughout the semester. The conclusion of the authors is that the merger resulted in mutual exposure of the races, but not in integration in any real sense. Measures of racial attitudes suggest improvement in this area, as well as in the area of tolerance. A brief discussion of the findings concludes that the most salient task for school systems engaged in racial mergers is to plan programs that result in integration in more than an administrative sense. (TL)