NAACP calls for black student-athletes to boycott Southern schools amid redistricting backlash

The NAACP launched the “Out of Bounds” campaign Tuesday, calling on black student-athletes to boycott Southern colleges in direct response to last month’s Supreme Court decision curtailing race-based redistricting.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson stated the organization “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.”

The boycott targets universities in eight states — Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia — primarily within the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference. Several host nationally ranked football programs, including Alabama, Texas, Georgia and Ole Miss.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Louisiana’s creation of a second majority-black congressional district constituted an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander.” The decision held that states can almost never consider race as the predominant factor when drawing electoral maps under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Within days Tennessee lawmakers split the state’s sole majority-black congressional district across three Republican districts. Louisiana state senators passed legislation that would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-minority districts.

The NAACP is urging recruits to withhold commitments from these schools and is pressing fans and alumni to redirect financial support to historically black colleges and universities instead.

The escalation reveals a coordinated pressure campaign using college athletics to punish Southern states for complying with the Court’s color-blind redistricting mandate.