As part of a nine-volume, six-state study of the impact of school finance reform on minorities and the poor, this report describes the history of court litigation concerning finance reform. The report's first part traces school finance reform from roughly 1900 through 1971 and summarizes parallel reform efforts by racial and ethnic minorities and the handicapped to secure adequate and nondiscriminatory schooling. The second part focuses on the decisions about fiscal neutrality in the cases of Serrano v. Priest and Rodriguez v. San Antonio Independent School District and goes on to discuss other school finance cases that do not involve fiscal neutrality. In the final section the author examines the issues that remain open in school finance reform and minority group litigation, including the question of whether fiscal neutrality, state constitutional provisions, or federal rules may advance the educational interests of urban and minority pupils. (Author/RW)