‘A Jackie Robinson moment’: Jeffries echoes NAACP calls for college sports boycott over voting rights | College sports

Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, amplified calls for Black athletes to boycott public universities in states that have moved to limit voting rights, saying an “unprecedented moment, marked by an unprecedented attack on Black political representation,” demands an “unprecedented response.”

Jeffries’ comments came Tuesday as the NAACP launched its “Off Bounds” campaign. The campaign targets universities in eight states – Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia – whose athletic programs generate more than $100 million in revenue. These eight states decided to draw new voting maps after the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision seriously weakened the Voting Rights Act.

The minority leader specifically called out the powerful Southeast Conference. Twelve of the SEC’s 16 member schools are in the eight targeted states.

“We stand here in solidarity with the NAACP and its call for athletes to boycott SEC institutions that are owned by states that have unleashed these Jim Crow-style racial oppression tactics, which is unacceptable, unconscionable and un-American,” Jeffries said during a press briefing Tuesday in Washington. “And we believe that the silence of these institutions is complicity, and we will not tolerate it.”

The campaign calls on football and basketball players recruited by programs in those states to withhold their commitments until those states “restore fair congressional playing field and meaningful Black representation.”

He also urges athletes and coaches already enrolled at these universities to use their platforms to promote the cause of voting rights, and asks fans, alumni and donors to stop financially supporting these programs. The SEC is home to nine of the 15 most valuable sports programs in the country, according to CNBC, including leader Texas ($1.48 billion), Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

Athletes from Missouri and Mississippi, two SEC schools, have led successful campaigns in recent years, lobbying universities and state governments for social justice causes. Jeffries referenced Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson in his remarks, calling on this generation to continue the legacy of previous activist athletes.

“For us to navigate this period of backlash and usher in a new era of progress, as has been the case for generations past, will require character, courage and conviction,” he said. “It’s a Bill Russell moment. It’s a Muhammad Ali moment. And it’s a Jackie Robinson moment. And we’re going to come together to make sure we create the type of country that the African American community deserves and that everyone in the United States of America deserves.”

Jeffries and members of the Congressional Black Caucus expressed opposition earlier this week to the Score Act, a bill intended to establish national standards for college athlete compensation. The bipartisan proposal, which has the support of the NCAA, was set to come up for a vote in the House this week, but the CBC opposed the bill in protest of universities’ silence on voting rights. House Republicans decided Tuesday to postpone a vote on the bill, the second time in less than a year that it has been blocked.

“The Congressional Black Caucus cannot support legislation benefiting major sports institutions that continue to remain silent while Black voting rights and Black political power are systematically dismantled in the South,” said New York Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke. “Institutions that profit from Black talent and Black communities have a responsibility to stand with these communities when their fundamental rights are threatened, whether in college sports, in corporate America, or in any other institution of American civil society.