This dissertation is a mixed methods study of race, language, and writing using the racial equity gaps in student success data as a starting point for the conversation that calls the fields of Rhetoric and Compositions, Literacy Studies, and Higher Education to act more intentionally towards creating equitable spaces in our writing classrooms. With a research circle drawn around the First-Year Composition (FYC) classroom level at open access institutions within the Florida College System's twenty-eight colleges, this project challenges the priorities, practices, and policies that have shaped the systems enacted in current first-year writing whose student success data demonstrates continued inequities. Situating this work at the course or individual classroom level and specifically through the voices of instructors versus the program or institutional level provides an intentionally narrow lens through which to look for ways to impact these inequities more effectively. The study has been designed to (1) identify barriers to success for students of color in First-Year Composition within two-year open access colleges, (2) identify current priorities, practices, and policies in First-Year Composition courses, (3) place the current priorities, practices, and policies in conversation with the interdisciplinary scholarly conversations, and (4) establish points of leverage or shifts needed in First-Year Composition that could establish more equitable learning experiences for students of color in the writing classroom. Results from this study conclude three main points of leverage that FYC could more intentionally enact. The first point of leverage includes enacting an increase in reflective optimism or the belief/mindset that all students can be successful in FYC courses. The second point of leverage includes enacting an increase in teacher efficacy or the instructor's confidence and belief that they have the knowledge to facilitate the practices necessary for enacting equitable learning spaces in FYC courses. The final point of leverage includes an increase understanding of the connection between race, language, and writing. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]