Political pressure on the states?
The world of college sports could become the next battlefield in the 2026 Civil Rights Movement. Following the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision weakening the 1965 Voters Rights Act, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced its “Out of Bounds” campaign. The NAACP is suggesting to African-American high school student-athletes who are looking for a school where they can play their sport to boycott colleges and universities in eight states. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and South Carolina house major college football programs. Prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, African-American athletes were effectively banned from those schools in those states because of Jim Crow laws. Ironically, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 harmed Black college sports programs as the best Black athletes could finally get scholarships at big time college programs in the American South.
Meanwhile, House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is supporting the call for African-American high school and college athletes to boycott public universities in the eight states. The NAACP is trying to counter Southern states gerrymandering Congressional districts in the aftermath of a Supreme Court ruling. NAACP President Derrick Johnson is among a group of activists that fanned out in the South to protest the Supreme Court decision. “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 said. “We will fight with all we have in solidarity with the Congressional Black Caucus to ensure that we have representation, or if we don’t, we will withhold the talent that plays on the football field or on the basketball court, be they male or female.” So far, the college sports leadership has stayed quiet about the call for a boycott.
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