Black Political Organizations

,College Athletics, HBCU’S and the Alarming Lack of Strong Leadership!

Scott Applewhite Associated Press

Considerable controversy and commentary have continued to cascade through various political, educational, economic, and financial venues ever since the NAACP publicly announced its multilayered “Out of Bounds” campaign. The association requested Black athletes to reconsider playing for prominent football and basketball programs at higher education institutions such as the University of Alabama, University of Georgia, Louisiana State University, and Clemson University. These institutions are located in states that recently aggressively exercised the right that the US Supreme Court granted them to redesign their congressional districts prior to the November 2026 midterm elections.

The boycott is in response to a series of Supreme Court rulings — beginning with Shelby County vs. Holder in 2013 — that have weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The NAACP has urged athletes currently enrolled at such institutions to consider transferring or demand that their respective coaches and athletic directors take a proactive stand in denouncing such gerrymandering efforts. The association also requested the athletes to consider attending HBCUs and encourage fellow players “not to let their athletic value be separated from their community’s political power.”

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has joined the NAACP with a similar request. Both are relying on Black Americans’ recognizing the political urgency of the moment, that the parents of these talented young men will get on board, understand what is at stake, and support the campaign. The reality is that Black athletes are the most successful, influential, and visible individuals within the larger Black community. A fierce, impervious, well-synthesized movement of Black athletes against resistant states would have a revolutionary effect on sports in general as well as on politics. Truth be told, such an effort would hardly be novel. During the 1960s, Black athletes flexed their political muscle by making themselves available to colleges and universities outside of the South. While such efforts can be inspirational, even aspirational, they face problems on several levels.

First is the call for these athletes to consider attending HBCUs. Most are located in the same states that adamantly support the redistricting efforts. Second, most HBCUs are drastically underfunded and horrendously economically deprived of the wealth that flourishes at many predominantly White institutions due to historical and chronic racism. The effort to coax these athletes to attend HBCUs would likely have the opposite effect.

Truth be told, too many mainstream Black organizations have been woefully inadequate in addressing the larger Black community’s concerns. On the first day of his second term in office, President Trump brazenly declared a war on diversity efforts, not only in government but also in any institution, from schools to law firms to private industries, over which he could exert leverage. At breakneck speed, regardless of any criteria, he began terminating high-profile Black government officials. They included the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr.; the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden; Gwynne Wilcox, a well-respected attorney who served on the National Labor Relations Board; Robert Primus, a member of the Surface Transportation Board; Alvin Brown, who served on the National Transportation Safety Board; Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics; Willie Phillips, head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

When Trump and his top political donor, Elon Musk, then started eliminating huge swaths of the federal government, to disastrous effect, the most severe cuts targeted agencies that employed a disproportionate number of Black employees. Not since Woodrow Wilson resegregated the federal workforce during his presidency has there been such a vile assault on Black government workers. Rather than hold wall-to-wall press conferences and flood the news zone decrying such brazenly bigoted antics, these same organizations were either offered bland and tepid remarks, were MIA or fell deafeningly silent. Unacceptable!

To be sure, the Trump administration has waged war on Black America (on all non-Whites for that matter), which now faces emergency levels of danger. Nonetheless, having the NAACP, CBC, and other Black national organizations recruit junior political warriors to tackle the dilemma is highly improbable. Moreover, it is unjust to enlist athletes in their late teens and early twenties and showcase them as contemporary modern-day saviors. These athletes, although endowed with rock-hard bodies, are still psychologically and emotionally immature and largely devoid of any political contacts or power. Indeed, it is grossly irresponsible and unfair to attempt to enlist kids — yes, kids — to lead a civil rights effort that many adults would find objectionable. Such a monumental request is unacceptable.

The situation would be different if these young men had collectively decided for themselves to initiate this sports boycott. In my view, it is unseemly to observe elders, many of whom are products or beneficiaries of generations of Civil Rights Movement activists, soliciting, indeed, demanding that Black youth take a fervent stand on behalf of the larger Black community when these same supposed leaders have frequently been less than sufficiently proactve on the recent assaults against much of Black America. We must resist all efforts to treat our young people as some kind of athletic guinea pigs or pawns of sorts to serve the agenda of others.

Elwood Watson Ph.D. is a professor of History, Black Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Studies at East Tennessee State University. He is a cultural critic, syndicated columnist, and author of the books,: Talkin’ To You, Bro!: Liberate Yourself from the Confusing, Ambiguous Messages of Contemporary Masculinity (Lasting Impact Press, 2021) and Keepin’ It Real: Essays on Race in Contemporary America. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/K/bo40060337.html (University of Chicago Press 2019)