St. Louis is the only community among the eight cities here being considered which until 1954 operated a segregated system of public education. Substantial compliance with the desegregation mandated by the fourteenth amendment was effected rapidly and with a minimum of dislocation. The initial stages of desegregation took place against a background of rapid population shifts. Like many metropolitan central cities, St. Louis has suffered an absolute decline in population since World War II, a decline which was sharpest in the 1950–60 decade when a net loss of over 100,000 residents occurred. During the same period the suburban area around St. Louis experienced an increase in population in excess of 50%.