Summary
The NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus launched a campaign on Tuesday urging Black athletes and fans to boycott college sports programs in the South as part of a broader fight over voting rights. The groups said they are targeting public universities in states they accuse of “moved to limit, weaken or erase Black voting representation,” after a U.S. Supreme Court decision narrowed a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson said the campaign is aimed at institutions that profit from Black athletic talent while, in his view, state actions strip political power from Black communities. Speaking during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol, he accused Republican-led Southern states of seeking to pull athletes into an economic engine while curbing Black electoral influence.
Johnson said, “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.” He added that the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus would support athletes in making individual decisions, including by “withhold[ing] the talent that plays on the football field or on the basketball court, be they male or female,” Johnson told reporters.
The NAACP’s “Out of Bounds” campaign urges current and prospective Black athletes, along with their families, alumni and fans, to “withhold athletic and financial support” from major public universities in states it identified as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and South Carolina. The NAACP said the targeted athletic programs in those states are especially reliant on Black athletes and should protect Black political interests.
The initiative is part of a coordinated effort by Black political leaders and civil rights activists to deter Republican-led states from changing congressional district maps. Voting rights groups and Democratic lawmakers have filed lawsuits seeking to block potential district changes, while civil rights activists have mobilized across the South to protest redistricting moves.
The NAACP and the Black Caucus also connected the boycott to legislation that the groups described as benefiting major sports institutions while allowing them, in the caucus’s view, to remain silent on voting-rights issues. On Monday, the Congressional Black Caucus said it would unanimously oppose the SCORE Act unless the sports leagues oppose what it characterized as redistricting efforts in GOP-led states. “Silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality — it is complicity,” the Congressional Black Caucus said in a Monday letter to the commissioners of the SEC and ACC athletic conferences, as well as NCAA President Charlie Baker.
Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Yvette Clarke told reporters the caucus cannot support legislation benefiting major athletic institutions that remain silent as Black voting rights and political power are being dismantled across the South. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the boycott was meant to oppose what he described as “a dramatic return to racially oppressive Jim Crow-like tactics,” adding that athletes ultimately would make individual choices supported by lawmakers and civil rights leaders.
Organizers said the timing of the initiative could limit its immediate effect because of the calendar for major Division I football and basketball. The article said transfer portals for those sports are closed until 2027, and while signing processes typically begin in late fall, a key concern for athletes and recruits is whether they can influence flagship programs through their commitments during the 2026–27 cycle.
The campaign’s ability to create leverage may depend on high school recruiting pressure points, organizers said. The signing window for basketball would open in mid-November after the midterm elections, and football signing would include a 72-hour early period in the first week of December, according to the account.
Brandon Copeland, CEO of Athletes.org, told reporters that opposition to the SCORE Act and redistricting efforts are linked and described the proposed changes to athlete compensation as “really a control mechanism.” Copeland said the same tool is being used to “suppress our voices, suppress our votes,” and that his organization would stand with athletes and their families.
The NAACP and its allies said they have sought other pressure points in response to redistricting, including calls for protests and economic boycotts. The NAACP cited prior actions by Black student athletes, including at the University of Mississippi, and it also referenced a 2024 effort that urged student-athletes to reconsider attending Florida universities, pointing to state policies on diversity, equity and inclusion and on the teaching of history.