NAACP urges college athletes and fans to withhold support from eight states
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly eroded the power of the Voting Rights Act, the NAACP is calling on Black college athletes, their families and their supporters to take action against eight states it says are attacking Black voting rights.
Those states are Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia.
Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s national president and CEO, explained the organization’s reasoning for launching the initiative, called the “Out of Bounds” campaign.
“What these states have done is not a policy disagreement. It is a sprint to erase Black political power,” Johnson said in a statement. “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 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.
“Out of Bounds is our answer: we are naming the contradiction, and we are calling on Black athletes, families, fans, and consumers to act on it. The same power that built these programs can be redirected. And it will be.”
The NAACP is primarily asking for top college football and basketball recruits to not commit to targeted public universities in those states, and consider HBCUs, until their governments institute a statewide voting rights act and restore fair congressional maps, among other demands.
The institutions targeted are some of college sports’ most recognizable names, including Texas, Texas A&M, Clemson, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Louisiana State, Mississippi and Mississippi State.
The campaign also calls on current athletes enrolled at targeted programs to consider the transfer portal, use their reach to push for fair maps and voting rights and ask institutions for public statements opposing racial vote dilution.
The campaign also asks donors, fans and alumni to stop buying tickets, merchandise or licensed apparel from targeted programs and instead direct that spending to HBCUs.
The campaign’s website has an athlete pledge and alumni pledge on the website where those interested in joining can sign up.
The NAACP says the campaign will last until the following demands are met: “targeted states adopt state-level voting rights protections, repeal maps that dilute Black voting power, restore congressional and judicial districts that reflect the Black population’s actual strength, and commit to transparent and community-centered redistricting processes.”
