05/19/26 01:59:00
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05/19 13:28 CDT NAACP calls for boycott of Southern college sports programs
over voting rights
NAACP calls for boycott of Southern college sports programs over voting rights
By MATT BROWN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) --- The NAACP is calling on Black athletes and fans to boycott
the athletic programs of public universities in states that are taking steps
that the nation's oldest civil rights group says are restricting Black voting
rights.
Launched on Tuesday, the "Out of Bounds" campaign urges prospective Black
athletes, their families, alumni and fans to "withhold athletic and financial
support" from major public universities in states that "have moved to limit,
weaken or erase Black voting representation."
If Black athletes participate in the boycott, it could deplete rosters for
powerhouse football and basketball programs across the Southeastern Conference
and Atlantic Coast Conference.
The NAACP is among groups responding to a wave of gerrymandering in the
aftermath of a U.S.Supreme Court ruling that winnowed a key provision of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The boycott comes as civil rights activists have mobilized across the South to
protest redistricting plans by Republican state legislatures that eliminate
majority-Black congressional districts after the high court's ruling. Activists
have looked for pressure points to dissuade GOP-led states from redistricting
maps, including calls for mass protests and economic boycotts.
"Across the South, Black athletes have helped build some of the most profitable
college athletic programs in America," said NAACP President Derrick Johnson.
Johnson noted that the programs "generate hundreds of millions of dollars in
annual revenue, national television value, alumni donations, merchandising
sales, ticket sales, and brand equity --- much of it powered by Black football
and basketball talent."
The NAACP's campaign calls out Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Texas and South Carolina as states to boycott, arguing that the
athletic programs of those states' flagship universities are especially reliant
on Black athletic talent and should protect Black political interests.
"Black athletes should not be asked to generate wealth, prestige, and power for
state institutions while those same states strip political power from Black
communities," Johnson said.
The timing of the initiative comes at a moment in the college athletic calendar
that might make it difficult for it to have any immediate impact. The transfer
portals for the high-profile Division I sports of football and basketball are
all closed until 2027.
There may be an opportunity to influence prominent high school recruits who are
still weighing their college prospects for the fall of 2027 and beyond. While
many schools have received nonbinding verbal agreements from football and
basketball players, those agreements won't become official until late fall at
the earliest.
The signing window for basketball opens in mid-November -- about a week after
the midterm elections -- and the 72-hour early signing period for football
arrives in the first week of December.
There is a chance that recruits could attempt to put pressure on flagship
institutions in the targeted states by threatening to sign somewhere else. The
reality, however, is that the pockets of those schools run deep, and asking a
teenager to factor politics into a decision that could produce a life-altering
financial windfall before they are even old enough to vote could prove tenuous.
Black lawmakers themselves are also putting pressure on athletic leagues to
take action against Republican-led states that may redistrict longtime Black
members of Congress.
The Congressional Black Caucus on Monday sent a letter to the commissioners of
the SEC and ACC athletic conferences, as well as NCAA President Charlie Baker,
that its members will oppose the SCORE Act, a bill to standardize athletes'
contracting rights across the country, unless conference leaders oppose GOP-led
redistricting efforts in states that include major conference members.
"The Congressional Black Caucus believes institutions that profit from Black
talent and Black communities have a responsibility to stand with those
communities when their fundamental rights are under attack," the CBC said in a
Monday statement. "Silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality --- it is
complicity."
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