it was unlikely, but not impossible.

the north, meaning places like boston, are even today largely geographically segregated. that is, different towns and/or parts of cities are segregated. in boston for example, the north end is italian, southie is irish, chinatown is asian, roxbury is black, dorchester was jewish, etc. you stayed in your neighborhood, because most people were poor.

that has changed somewhat in the last 50 years with the neighborhoods blurring, and white flight, but i had less than 5 black students in my classes through high school. diversity was not a thing until the 1980's. that was what spurred the whole bussing thing in boston.