WASHINGTON — The NAACP launched its "Out of Bounds" campaign on Tuesday in Washington, urging Black student-athletes to withhold athletic commitments from a list of universities primarily in the Southeastern Conference. The organization asked fans and alumni of the targeted programs to redirect their financial support to historically Black colleges and universities and called on recruits to visit HBCU campuses instead.

The targeted universities are located in Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia, and include the University of Alabama, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Georgia and the University of Mississippi. Almost all of the schools on the list are members of the Southeastern Conference. A spokesperson for the conference did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

"The NAACP 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," NAACP National President and CEO Derrick Johnson said. Among the organization's demands is the adoption of state-level voting rights acts.

Tylik McMillan, National Director of the NAACP's Youth and College Division, framed the effort as a call to action for young people. "We are asking young people – recruits, current athletes, fans – to see that connection clearly and to act on it. The Out of Bounds campaign is about redirecting what has always been ours, power and perseverance," he said.

The campaign followed a series of voting rights developments. Last month, the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling holding that using race to draw two majority-Black districts in Louisiana was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Within days of that ruling, the Tennessee Legislature split the state's only majority-Black and Democratic-held congressional district into three Republican districts. State senators in Louisiana passed legislation that would eliminate one of the state's two majority-minority congressional districts. Thousands of people gathered at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest the Supreme Court decision.

Comedian D.L. Hughley voiced support for the strategy. "If athletes stop going to the Tennessees and the Louisianas, the top-tier athletes, ESPN and the presidents of schools, chambers of commerce would start having conversations," he said.

On the weekend before the campaign launch, speakers at an "All Roads Lead to the South" rally in Montgomery, Alabama, called for mass protests and economic boycotts to promote voting rights. In 2020, Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey warned that Mississippi risked losing the ability to host championships if it did not change its state flag, which included the Confederate battle emblem. The Voting Rights Act was enacted in 1965 to protect minority voters against discrimination in elections.