The NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus are urging black athletes and fans to boycott flagship public universities in several Republican-led southern states following a recent Supreme Court ruling involving the Voting Rights Act.
The organizations announced Tuesday the launch of an “Out of Bounds” campaign targeting schools in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
The campaign calls on current and prospective black athletes, along with their families, alumni and supporters, to withhold “athletic and financial support” from major public universities in states the groups accuse of attempting to “limit, weaken, or erase black voting representation.”
The campaign follows last month’s Supreme Court ruling further defining the scope of the Voting Rights Act, a decision many Democrats and affiliated organizations portrayed as weakening protections for minority voters.
Several of the schools potentially impacted by the boycott are home to some of the nation’s most powerful college athletic programs, including the University of Alabama, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Georgia and the University of Mississippi.
If black athletes broadly participated in the boycott effort, it could significantly affect recruiting pipelines for top football and basketball programs throughout the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), according to the Associated Press.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., defended the campaign and framed it as a response to what he spun as racial suppression efforts in Republican-led states.
“We’re going to support them, and we know they have options,” Jeffries said, while arguing the effort was intended to create consequences for “a dramatic return to racially oppressive Jim Crow-like tactics.”
The Congressional Black Caucus also reportedly sent a letter to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips and NCAA President Charlie Baker pressuring the organizations to oppose Republican-backed redistricting policies in states with major conference schools.
According to reports, the letter warned that the caucus could oppose pending federal legislation related to college athlete compensation — known as the SCORE Act — if the conferences do not publicly challenge GOP-led redistricting efforts.
Supporters of the boycott argue sports programs generate enormous revenue and prestige for states they believe are undermining minority voting representation, and they contend athletes should use their influence to pressure political change.
Critics, however, argue the campaign politicizes college athletics and unfairly targets universities and student-athletes over broader state-level political disputes. Opponents also contend the boycott could ultimately harm black athletes themselves by discouraging participation in some of the country’s most competitive athletic programs with the largest NIL opportunities and strongest professional pipelines.
Republicans have defended redistricting efforts and voting law changes as constitutionally valid and race-neutral, arguing Democrats are attempting to frame ordinary political disputes as civil rights violations.
