The oldest civil rights organization in the country, the NAACP, is urging Black athletes and supporters to abstain from participating in public university athletic programs in states that are implementing policies that it claims restrict Black voting rights.
The “Out of Bounds” campaign, which was launched on Tuesday, calls on prospective Black athletes, their families, alumni, and supporters to “withhold athletic and financial support” from major public colleges in states that “have moved to limit, weaken or erase Black voting representation.”
Powerful football and basketball teams in the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference may lose players if Black athletes take part in the boycott.
Following a Supreme Court decision that weakened a crucial clause in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the NAACP is one organization reacting to a wave of gerrymandering.
Following the high court’s decision, civil rights groups have organized throughout the South to oppose Republican state legislatures’ attempts to erase majority-Black congressional districts by redistricting. In an effort to deter GOP-led states from redrawing their borders, activists have sought out pressure points such as calls for large-scale demonstrations and economic boycotts.
