NAACP urges boycott of college sports in south over voting rights | US voting rights
On Tuesday, the NAACP launched a campaign calling on Black athletes, their families, alumni and fans to boycott public university athletic programs in states that “take action to limit, undermine or erase Black voting representation.”
inside announcement Under its “Out of Borders” campaign, the civil rights giant controlled eight states — Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia — where its flagship public athletic programs generate more than $100 million in annual revenue. Each of these states Moved to draw new maps to limit Representation of the black vote following the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision, which severely weakened the Voting Rights Act.
“This is not a policy dispute by the states. This is a rush to eliminate black political power,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “The NAACP will not follow the same institutions that rely on Black athletic prowess to fill their stadiums and watch their bank accounts remain silent while their states silence the voices of Black communities.”
The campaign calls on football and basketball players currently actively recruited by targeted programs to honor their commitments until states “re-establish fair congressional maps and meaningful Black representation,” to make demands of coaches and athletic directors at targeted programs where their universities have voting rights, and to visit and seriously consider joining athletic programs at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Athletes currently enrolled in targeted programs are asked to use their platforms to advance fair voting maps and voting rights, ask their university’s leadership to issue public statements opposing racial vote dilution, and consider their options, including entering the transfer portal.
The campaign asks non-athletes, such as fans, alumni and donors, to stop financially supporting targeted programs by not purchasing tickets, merchandise or licensed apparel. Instead, the NAACP wants them to use those resources to support athletic programs, scholarship funds, bands and alumni foundations at HBCUs.
“The state that tried to wipe out your grandmother’s congressional district is the same state whose governor would stand on the field and celebrate your touchdown or game-winning shot,” Tylik McMillan, national director of the NAACP’s youth and college division, said in a statement. “We ask young people (newcomers, current athletes, fans) to see this connection clearly and act accordingly. The Out of Bounds campaign is about reorienting what has always been ours: strength and perseverance.”
Recent history has seen some successful examples of athletes exerting political pressure on their universities.
In 2020, athletes participating in programs in Mississippi opposed the state flag, which at the time included the Confederate battle emblem. Mississippi ultimately changed the flag.
And in 2015, members of the University of Missouri football team, including the coaching staff, attended a campus-wide meeting. student protest After the racist incidents at the university, Black football players said the following: I will not participate He was involved in football-related activities until the college president resigned.
“Out of Bounds” is the latest response from voting rights activists since the Callais decision was passed last month and states began redistricting.
On Monday, the Congressional Black Caucus in question will oppose the Points Bill, a bill aimed at standardizing athletes’ contract rights across the country. “The Congressional Black Caucus cannot support legislation that benefits major sports organizations that continue to remain silent while Black voting rights and Black political power are systematically dismantled across the South,” reads a statement from CBC.
Over the weekend, thousands of people gathered in Montgomery, Alabama, for an “All Roads Lead South” rally in support of voting rights. During the rally, numerous speakers called for mass protests and economic boycotts; these strategies have previously been successful in securing voting rights.
