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The NAACP on Tuesday announced the launch of its “Out of Bounds” campaign, calling on Black student-athletes to refuse commitments to colleges and universities in eight Southern states in response to recent state-level changes to congressional redistricting maps following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson said the organization will not stand by while institutions that rely heavily on Black athletic talent “remain silent” as states adjust electoral maps.
“We 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,” Johnson stated.
The boycott targets schools in Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia — many of them prominent members of the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference. Several of the affected programs, including those at Alabama, Texas, Georgia, and Ole Miss, rank among the nation’s top football powers.
The campaign comes in the wake of a 6-3 Supreme Court decision last month that struck down Louisiana’s creation of a second majority-Black congressional district as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The Court held that states may not consider race as the predominant factor when drawing electoral maps under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
In the days following the ruling, Tennessee lawmakers moved to split the state’s lone majority-Black congressional district across three Republican-held districts. Louisiana state senators advanced legislation that would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-minority districts.
The NAACP is encouraging high school recruits to withhold commitments from universities in these states and is asking fans and alumni to redirect financial contributions toward historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) instead.
The initiative marks a significant escalation in efforts to leverage college athletics as a tool to influence state compliance with the Supreme Court’s redistricting guidance.
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"The NAACP is encouraging high school recruits to withhold commitments from universities in these states and is asking fans and alumni to redirect financial contributions toward historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) instead."
It really hurts me to not see black athletes in the game.