‘A Jackie Robinson moment’: Jeffries echoes NAACP calls for college sports boycott over voting rights

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• Top House Democrat calls out SEC schools for silence

• Campaign comes as states move to redraw voter maps

Hakeem Jeffries, the top US House Democrat, has amplified calls for Black athletes to boycott public universities in states that have moved to limit voting rights, saying an “unprecedented moment, featuring an unprecedented attack on Black political representation” requires an “unprecedented response”.

Jeffries’s comments came Tuesday as the NAACP launched its “Out of Bounds” campaign. The campaign targets universities in eight states – Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia – whose athletic programs generate more than $100m in revenue. Those eight states have moved to draw new voter maps after the supreme court’s Louisiana v Callais decision severely weakened the Voting Rights Act.

The minority leader specifically called out the powerhouse Southeastern Conference. Twelve of the SEC’s 16 member schools are in the eight targeted states.

“We are here standing in solidarity with the NAACP and its call for athletes to boycott institutions within the SEC that belong to states that have unleashed these Jim Crow-like, racially oppressive tactics, which is unacceptable, unconscionable and un-American,” Jeffries said during a press briefing on Tuesday in Washington. “And we believe that the silence of these institutions is complicity, and we will not stand for it.”

The campaign calls on football and basketball players being recruited by programs in those states to withhold their commitments until the states “restore fair congressional maps and meaningful Black representation”.

It also urges athletes and coaches already enrolled at those universities to use their platforms to elevate voting rights causes, and asks fans, alumni and donors to stop financially supporting those programs. The SEC is home to nine of the 15 highest-valued athletic programs in the country, according to CNBC, including leader Texas ($1.48bn), Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

Athletes at Missouri and Mississippi, both SEC schools, have led successful campaigns in recent years putting pressure on universities and state governments for social justice causes. Jeffries referenced Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson in his remarks, calling on this generation to carry on the legacies of previous activist athletes.

“For us to get through this moment of backlash and usher in a new era of progress, as has been done by generations in the past, it’s going to require character, it’s going to require courage and it’s going to require conviction,” he said. “This is a Bill Russell moment. It’s a Muhammad Ali moment. And it’s a Jackie Robinson moment. And we’re going to stand together to make sure we bring about the type of country that the African American community deserves and that everyone in the United States of America deserves.”

Jeffries and members of the Congressional Black Caucus earlier this week voiced their opposition to the Score act, a bill intended to set national standards for college athletes’ compensation. The bipartisan proposal, which has support from the NCAA, was to be brought to the House floor for a vote this week, but the CBC opposed the bill to protest the silence of the universities on voting rights. House Republicans decided on Tuesday to postpone a vote on bill, the second time in less than a year that it has been stalled.

“The Congressional Black Caucus cannot support legislation benefiting major athletic institutions that continue to remain silent while Black voting rights and Black political power are being systematically dismantled across the South,” said Yvette Clarke, a Democratic congresswoman from New York. “Institutions that profit from Black talent and Black communities have a responsibility to stand with those communities when their fundamental rights are under attack, whether in college athletics, corporate America or any other institution within American civil society.”

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