Walk the high road: Camouflaging racism and the Florida experience along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard

The naming or renaming of streets for Martin Luther King is increasingly common in U.S. cities and towns. It takes place in highly public debate and often creates controversy within a community, exposing racial and political tensions that have previously been buried or ignored by residents. This dissertation looks at the street naming process in four Florida communities over a 20 year time period and analyzes how different types of racial theories interact with the street naming process and if differences in those theories results in different types of protests from street naming opponents. Four racial theories are analyzed---critical race theory, systemic racism, municipal exclusion and majority and minority representation---and are explored using case studies in Tampa in 1988, in Palmetto in 1994, in Zephyrhills in 2004 and in Pensacola in 1997 and again in 2008, to determine if naming a street for Martin Luther King is an indication of how far race relations have come in the past 25 years or if there is more process to be made.