The all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus announced its unanimous opposition Monday evening to what was once a bipartisan college athletics bill, with even two of the original co-sponsors withdrawing their support.
“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,” caucus members said in a joint statement.
Their opposition to the so-called SCORE Act is noteworthy as CBC Reps. Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.) and Shomari Figures (D-Ala.) helped introduce the legislation last year. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has since tried to negotiate with GOP hard-liners to overcome roadblocks on his side of the aisle related to international student scholarships.
But the CBC’s united front against the legislation also comes in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision that will allow Republican-led states to eliminate majority-minority districts across the South — a major blow to the House’s Black power base. House Democrats have vowed to retaliate against the GOP in pursuit of a House majority next term by whatever means necessary, and this could be a step toward that end.
“This is not politics as usual,” the members said. “This is a defining moral moment for our country.”
The caucus also has sent letters to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, ACC Commissioner James Phillips and NCAA President Charlie Baker demanding a public response to the “ongoing assault on Black political representation throughout the South and across the nation.”
“For generations, Black athletes have helped build college athletics into one of the most powerful and profitable industries in American life. The success, visibility, and cultural influence of major athletic conferences and institutions are inseparable from the talent, labor, leadership, and cultural contributions of Black communities,” the CBC members said in their statement. “Yet at the very moment those same communities face coordinated attacks on their democratic representation, too many leaders across college athletics have chosen silence.”
They continued, “The Congressional Black Caucus believes institutions that profit from Black talent and Black communities have a responsibility to stand with those communities when their fundamental rights are under attack. Silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality — it is complicity.”
