Abstract

At the time when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, there was no question that he was addressing the discriminatory practices and blatant Jim Crow racism that systematically excluded Blacks from fair access to employment, housing and education. However, in the post Civil Rights era, conservatives have taken virtually one line of King's "I Have a Dream" speech and turned it on its head, creating new meaning and understanding. Conservatives' seemingly innocent use of Civil Rights language, speeches and writings has been the bastion of conservative efforts to repeal liberal education policy. Taken out of the original context of redressing historical discrimination against Blacks, conservatives' misappropriation of King's words, speeches and even image served the strategic purpose of excluding minorities from higher education. As a result of an onslaught of court cases as well as research and policy initiatives against the use of race in college admissions, conservatives have successfully challenged liberal policy and law through a well-funded, continual, multi-institutional effort. This project examines how in such a short period of time did the call for colorblind justice used during the Civil Rights movement to redress Jim Crow racism become the mantra for conservative efforts to repeal those same policies. More specifically, how is it that conservatives have been able to utilize Civil Rights frames to elicit different meanings and shared understandings that culminate in diametrically opposed results? The goal of this project is to explain conservative actors' efforts to end the use of race in higher education admission policies using all three theoretical approaches—frames, racial ideology, and political opportunity. When considering conservatives' successful opposition to the use of race in education policy, it is important to take into consideration the interaction of all three ideational levels: the strategic frames employed that needed to resonate with the prevalent racial ideologies while taking advantage of and utilizing political opportunities.