NAACP calls on Black athletes to withhold support for some colleges in states 'attacking Black voting rights'
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People launched a campaign on Tuesday to call for Black athletes, recruits, fans and alumni to withhold athletic and financial support at public universities in states that the NAACP said have moved to limit Black voting representation.
"Out of Bounds" campaign's primary goal is to call on the top football and basketball players who are being recruited by programs from select states to withhold their commitments until "fair congressional maps" are restored in those states, the NAACP's statement said.
"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," Derrick Johnson, President & CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement.
The campaign chose to target public universities and colleges in eight "priority states" — Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia.
The campaign also urged current scholar athletes already enrolled in the targeted programs to reconsider their options through the transfer portal and to use their "NIL reach to elevate fair maps and voting rights."
"The state that is working to erase your grandmother's congressional district is the same state whose governor will stand on the field and celebrate your touchdown or game-winning shot," Tylik McMillan, National Director of the Youth and College Division of the NAACP, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The NAACP's move comes in the wake of the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais on April 29, which weakened a central provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that allowed advocacy groups to require new majority-minority districts.
When racially polarized voting combined with district lines to prevent minority communities from electing candidates of their choice, the Voting Rights Act allowed courts to require states to draw additional opportunity districts.
By ruling that such race-conscious compliance is unconstitutional, the Court hollowed out one of the most powerful applications of the Voting Rights Act, causing redistricting efforts to soar in states around the country before the 2026 midterm elections, particularly in southern states.
The civil rights advocacy organization said that sports in the targeted schools generated more than $100 million of revenue per year while their states dismantled political power in Black communities.
"This generation of Black athletes understands something that those who came before them were never afforded the chance to say so plainly: your talent is yours, and so is your community's political power," McMillan said.
The "Out of Bounds" campaign also asks fans, alumni and donors to stop purchasing tickets and merchandise from these schools.
ABC News reached out to the schools named by the NAACP for statements. The schools include the University of Alabama, Auburn University, University of South Carolina, Clemson University, University of Tennessee, University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, University of Georgia, University of Florida, Florida State University, University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University and Louisiana State University.
ABC News' Sabina Ghebremedhin and James Sample contributed to this report.
