NAACP calls for college sports boycott in states targeting Black voting power

The NAACP is calling on Black athletes and their supporters to boycott public universities in states that have moved to “limit, weaken or erase Black voting representation” in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to dramatically limit the landmark Voting Rights Act.

With what it has dubbed the “Out of Bounds” campaign, the civil rights group is asking Black athletes and recruits to withhold their commitments to schools in eight states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas — where flagship universities generate millions of dollars in annual athletic revenue.

The public pressure campaign also asks fans to stop purchasing tickets and merchandise from those athletic programs, and for current athletes to use their platforms to question school leaders about voting rights. Recruits and current athletes are being encouraged to strongly consider committing or transferring to historically Black colleges and universities.

“The NAACP will not watch the same institutions that depend on Black athletic prowess to fill their stadiums and their bank accounts remain silent while their states strip Black communities of their voice,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “… The same power that built these programs can be redirected. And it will be.”

In a ruling this month, the Supreme Court dramatically limited a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that had allowed states to consider race when drawing congressional maps. Though the Voting Rights Act still directs states to consider race to some degree when redistricting, the ruling kicked off a scramble by Republicans, especially in Southern states, to redraw their maps.

Louisiana is adjusting its map after the Supreme Court ruled that a second majority-Black district was unconstitutional. In Tennessee, the state’s sole Democrat in Congress dropped his reelection bid after the General Assembly broke up his majority-Black district into three separate ones that favor Republicans. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has called a special session next month to redraw the state’s congressional map for 2028.

“What these states have done is not a policy disagreement. It is a sprint to erase Black political power,” Johnson said. “These actions happened in days, in some cases in hours, of a Supreme Court ruling that gives extremist lawmakers a playbook to erode Black representation.”

The NAACP said the campaign will remain in effect until the states in question adopt voting rights protections and restore congressional maps that accurately reflect the Black population, among other demands.

Tylik McMillan, national director for the NAACP’s youth and college division, said it was important for Black athletes to understand that their talent and their community’s political power are not separate issues.

“The state that is working to erase your grandmother’s congressional district is the same state whose governor will stand on the field and celebrate your touchdown or game-winning shot,” McMillan said in a statement. “We are asking young people — recruits, current athletes, fans — to see that connection clearly and to act on it.”