NAACP calls for Black student-athletes to boycott Southern schools amid redistricting backlash

The NAACP launched a campaign Tuesday calling on black student-athletes to boycott Southern colleges following a Supreme Court ruling last month that weakened the Voting Rights Act, leading to the dismantling of one majority-black congressional district and a push to eliminate others.

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“The NAACP will not see the same institutions that depend on Black athletic prowess to fill their stadiums and bank accounts remain silent while their states rob Black communities of their voices,” NAACP National President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement.

The group urges black recruits not to commit to a list of colleges primarily within the NCAA Southeastern Conference. Schools are located in the following states: Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia. Several schools offer nationally ranked football programs, including the University of Alabama, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Georgia, and the University of Mississippi.

The “Out of Bounds” campaign comes as voting rights advocates of all generations grapple with what they see as the latest blow to one of the most defining victories of the national civil rights movement. The Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965 to protect minority voters who have long faced discrimination in elections. Last month, in a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that using race to draw two majority-black districts in Louisiana was an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

The decision is already having repercussions throughout the South. Within days, the Tennessee Legislature split the state’s only majority-black, Democratic congressional district into three Republican congressional districts. Rep. Steve Cohen, a veteran Democratic lawmaker from Tennessee, later announced he was no longer running for reelection in the newly redrawn 9th Congressional District, saying the new maps “silenced the black vote here in Memphis.” Louisiana state senators also passed legislation that would result in the loss of one of the state’s two majority-minority districts.

Republicans welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision ahead of this year’s midterm elections. But the Callais decision sparked a wave of backlash in the Southeast, where communities with a history of discrimination in elections had to seek prior permission from the federal government before changing their voting laws or creating new voting maps. Over the weekend, thousands gathered in Alabama to protest the decision on the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and Montgomery.

During the civil rights movement, the universities of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia experienced some of the fiercest and most violent resistance to integration. Today, many of their athletic programs have diverse rosters.

The NAACP said fans and alumni of “targeted programs” should redirect their financial support to historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs. The organization also encouraged recruits to visit these campuses.

Among the NAACP’s demands is the passage of voting rights laws at the state level.

Before the campaign launched, people were already debating online how much, if any, of the burden of responding to state redistricting efforts should fall on Black athletes. Supporters argued that any action that jeopardizes universities’ financial benefits from sports could be enough to shake things up.

“If athletes stop going to Tennessee and Louisiana, high-profile athletes, ESPN and school presidents, chambers of commerce will start having conversations,” comedian DL Hughley said in a recent interview with The Tennessee Holler.

Almost all universities listed by the NAACP are Southeastern Conference schools. A Southeast Conference spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The conference has addressed issues of racial justice in the past. In 2020, Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey warned that Mississippi, which has two conference member schools, was at risk of being unable to host championships if it did not change its state flag, which included the Confederate battle emblem.

Sports and college leaders from across the state also gathered at the Mississippi Capitol to support a new flag, which lawmakers agreed to that summer.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.