[2] The book's title originates from a statement from a member of the HISD board of education, who asked the district to "make haste slowly" in response to a court order stating that schools should be integrated "with all deliberate speed".

[3] In 2003 Benjamin H. Johnson of Southern Methodist University wrote in Texas Books in Review that "The battles over desegregation so vividly described by William Kellar are really the middle chapters of a still-unfinished story", citing magnet schools causing tension regards related to de facto segregation as well as the decline of HISD infrastructure and the decrease of HISD's tax base.

[8] In addition Cole stated that Keller had provided "little evidence" for the argument that the business community had caused the peaceful desegregation, even though the claim was plausible.

[6] Michael Fultz of the University of Wisconsin-Madison wrote that the book, a "more or less readable account",[7] presents anti-desegregation efforts "convincingly and depicted in their true ugly light.

[10] Raymond Wolters of the University of Delaware described the book as "a competent but narrowly focused" and "valuable account of the school board debates and demographic trends of Houston".