The NAACP is calling in the most powerful economic lever it has. The organization launched the Out of Bounds campaign, a national call for Black athletes, families, fans, alumni, and consumers to withhold athletic and financial support from public universities in states that have moved to eliminate or dilute Black voting representation in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which gutted what remained of the Voting Rights Act.
The campaign targets eight states: Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia. Each of those states has moved aggressively to redraw congressional maps in ways that crack and dilute majority-Black districts, reducing Black political representation at the exact moment when the Supreme Court has made it hardest to fight back in court.
Each of those states also has flagship public universities with athletic programs generating over $100 million in annual revenue, programs that recruit Black athletes from across the country while their state governments work to silence the communities those athletes come from.
“What these states have done is not a policy disagreement. It is a sprint to erase Black political power,” said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “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. Out of Bounds is our answer: we are naming the contradiction, and we are calling on Black athletes, families, fans, and consumers to act on it. The same power that built these programs can be redirected. And it will be.”
The NAACP is calling on top football and basketball recruits currently being actively recruited by targeted programs to withhold their commitments until the states in question restore fair congressional maps and meaningful Black representation.
For current college athletes already enrolled at targeted programs, the campaign asks them to use their platforms and NIL reach to elevate the issue of fair maps and voting rights, to ask their coaches and athletic directors for public statements opposing racial vote dilution, and to consider all available options, including the transfer portal.
For fans, alumni, donors, and consumers, the organization is asking to stop purchasing tickets, merchandise, and licensed apparel from targeted programs and redirect that spending to HBCUs, their athletics programs, scholarship funds, NIL collectives, bands, and alumni foundations.
“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,” Tylik McMillan, National Director of the NAACP’s Youth and College Division, said in a statement. “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. We are asking young people — recruits, current athletes, fans — to see that connection clearly and to act on it.”
To learn more and take action, visit naacp.org.
Photo Credit: NAACP Website
