NAACP Launches Campaign Urging Black Athletes to Boycott Southern College Sports

The NAACP launched the "Out of Bounds" campaign on Tuesday to urge Black athletes, recruits, fans and alumni to withhold athletic and financial support from public universities in eight Southern states. The campaign targets Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

It asks current and prospective athletes to reconsider commitments and use their NIL influence to push for fair congressional maps.

U.S. Supreme Court 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais on April 29 that weakened a key Voting Rights Act provision allowing majority-minority districts. Redistricting activity has increased ahead of the 2026 midterms. NAACP President Derrick Johnson said during a Capitol news conference that states are "seeking to reinstitute a sharecropping reality" by recruiting Black athletes while limiting their communities' political power.

The Congressional Black Caucus joined the call and said it would oppose the SCORE Act unless athletic conferences push back against the redistricting efforts. Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the caucus, stated that silence from institutions amounts to complicity.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries described the redistricting as a return to "racially oppressive Jim Crow-like tactics" and said lawmakers would support athletes who choose to participate. " — Derrick Johnson, NAACP President & CEO, May 19, 2026 (AP News) The campaign also calls on fans, alumni and donors to stop buying tickets and merchandise.

Transfer portals for football and basketball remain closed until 2027, limiting immediate roster impact but potentially affecting 2027 recruits.

The NAACP cited past athlete-led protests, including the University of Mississippi's removal of the Confederate flag in 2015 and a 2024 call to reconsider Florida universities over education policies. Similar boycotts have targeted companies and events in Georgia in 2021.