Charles W. Cheng of Los Angeles, an educator and civil rights activist who was involved in the movement to desegregate Boston public schools, was among those killed in Friday's crash of the American Airlines DC-10 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. He was 42 years old.

Cheng served from 1975 to 1976 as a research associate at the Center for Urban Studies at Harvard and research staff member of the joint center at MIT and Harvard.

He received his doctoral degree in 1972 from the Graduate School of Education.

After completing his doctorate with a thesis on community participation in educational decision-making. Cheng became one of the nation's leading experts on community involvement in educational policy during the next four years.

Cheng had been actively involved in civil rights work since the early 1960s, when he took part in school boycotts in Detroit for racial desegregation. He was also active in the Freedom Rides and voter registration programs in Mississippi in 1964-1965.

While completing his degree at Harvard. Cheng was a member of the American Friends Service Committee task force on school desegreation in Boston.

Cheng was returning to Los Angeles, where he was a faculty member at UCLA, after delivering a lecture at the University of Wisconsin.

Cheng was also a member of the American Federation of Teachers and union negotiator for teachers in Washington.