NAACP calls for boycott of SEC sports to protest southern states’ redistricting

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - College football is a religion in Louisiana. It’s also big business. The Southeastern Conference generated more than $1.03 billion in revenue in the 2024-25 fiscal year. Now, the NAACP is calling on Black athletes, alumni and fans to put a dent in that revenue by boycotting the SEC.

“You boycott in places where they know they got a lot of people. And when they start losing money, maybe they’ll start to listen to the voice of the people,” said Rev. Richard Bell Sr., district vice president for the NAACP in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Washington parishes.

Bell says Republican efforts to redraw congressional maps in Louisiana and other Deep South states are stripping away Black representation, and the proposed boycott is one way to protest.

“We are mad, we are pissed off, we are ready to march,” Bell said. “We’re ready to show them. If it takes us to Baton Rouge, going into the chamber, wherever it takes, we’re letting them know we’re not going to go back.”

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry defends redistricting. Last week, Landry told a “60 Minutes” correspondent that it was a move toward equality.

“You cannot say that we’re all created equal, and that states must treat everyone equal under the law, and then allow a law to sort people based upon race,” Landry said. “In the United States, we get equal rights. No one gets extra rights.”

The Louisiana redistricting map passed out of a Senate committee last week reduced the state’s number of majority-Black districts from two to one.

The NAACP’s “Out of Bounds” campaign specifically targets collegiate athletic programs at public universities in Louisiana and other southern states that essentially make up the SEC. According to the NAACP, those universities heavily rely on the talent of Black athletes. The campaign is urging athletes and people to take their talents and money to historically black colleges and universities instead.

At City Park on Wednesday (May 20), a man named Alex said he has mixed feelings on the proposed boycott. Alex asked to withhold his last name but said he grew up in New Orleans but now lives in California.

“The SEC were the last schools that allowed African-Americans to attend, so I’m not an SEC fan,” he said. “If this (boycott) gains traction, I would support it. But if these kids decided they don’t want to do it, I understand that this is their life, their careers.”

Appearing on CNN’s Laura Coates Live, former New Orleans Saints and University of Tennessee wide receiver Donte Stallworth said he recognizes the importance of the message behind the boycott. But he said some student-athletes might not be ready to be part of it.

“I think it’s difficult for me to push on these 18-year-olds, these 19-year-olds, to get them to make a decision of this magnitude at such a young age,” Stallworth said.

Politics and sports often play out in different arenas, but as far as the NAACP is concerned, it refuses stay on the sidelines.

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