NAACP launches campaign to boycott southern universities over voting rights
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has called on Black athletes and fans to withhold support from public universities in seven southern states, citing the erosion of political power following a recent US Supreme Court ruling.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has initiated the “Out of Bounds” campaign, urging Black athletes, fans, alumni, and families to withdraw athletic and financial support from public universities across seven southern US states. The targeted jurisdictions are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and South Carolina. The campaign is a direct response to redistricting efforts in these states that advocates argue are designed to dilute Black voting representation.
The move follows a US Supreme Court ruling in April that weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, making it more difficult to challenge congressional district maps that may disproportionately affect minority voting power. In the wake of this decision, several southern states have accelerated redistricting efforts, with some pausing primary votes to redraw maps and others preparing to do so ahead of the November midterm elections, which will determine control of the US House of Representatives and Senate.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson framed the boycott as a necessary counterbalance to the economic benefits generated by Black athletes. He noted that Black talent has helped build some of the most profitable college athletic programs in America, generating hundreds of millions of dollars annually through revenue, television value, donations, and brand equity. “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,” Johnson stated.
The campaign specifically targets the athletic programmes of the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference, where Black athletes are heavily represented in football and basketball. With Republican-controlled legislatures in the South leading the post-ruling redistricting push, the NAACP argues that the financial contributions of Black athletes are supporting institutions that are actively working to limit their political influence.
The Voting Rights Act was originally passed in 1965 to prohibit racist practices used to disenfranchise Black voters in southern and some northern states. The current campaign marks a significant escalation in institutional pressure, shifting the focus from legal challenges to economic leverage in the wake of the April Supreme Court decision.
