Studies on northern desegregation have focused on political strategies, the role of the courts, the responsibility of the federal government (HEW), and barriers to northern desegregation. Some have conducted individual case studies and comparative studies, and others have examined a number of cities. This article examines the way school desegregation occurred in two northern cities, Chicago, Illinois, and Kokomo, Indiana from 1960 to 1985. The aim is to investigate the different ways in which these two cities desegregated their schools. These two cities were chosen because they represent many of the elements of northern desegregation seen in a number of other cities, but the cities also provide unique elements as well. Chicago and Kokomo provide another avenue for understanding how these varying elements play out in different locales. In spite of being so different, these two cities show how entangled racialized school segregation policies were in the North. In this study, Kokomo and Chicago present two very different views of how school desegregation occurred in northern cities. (Contains 100 footnotes.)