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I’ve heard of white flight since I was a kid in the 90’s and it was always associated with crime.
Crime was undoubtedly a factor, but I think public school integration and the ham-fisted, obviously harmful way it was ordered implemented by the Supreme Court (putting aside the separation of powers overreach in that), was really the thing that started the mass exodus. You can avoid crime to a large degree even in a high-crime city by knowing where it is and is not safe to go, and when, but you couldn't (and in many places still can't) avoid sending your kids to a dysfunctional urban public school unless you got them into - and could afford - private school.
My family is Southern, and it’s very clear that class has a huge affect on the desegregation experience. My boomer relatives who integrated with middle class or above blacks typically described the experience either positively or, more commonly, neutrally. My boomer relatives that had the experience of integrating lower class blacks universally hated the experience. Lots of violence and sexual harassment once you reached high school.
Yes, this probably would have worked, broadly, but would not have achieved full integration due to the larger class disparity between blacks and whites. The Supreme Court therefore mandated the worst thing possible, bussing kids from low-class black neighborhoods into middle-class white neighborhoods and vice versa. The outcome was entirely predictable.
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