LeBron James Calls Out Voter Suppression

LeBron James was awarded with the President’s Award at the 53rd NAACP Image Awards on Saturday night (March 27).

During his speech, the Los Angeles Lakers star and activist sat with his injured foot as he thanked everyone who helped him receive the honor and spent a good portion of it highlighting the ongoing efforts by many to suppress the Black vote and his “More Than a Vote” initiative.

“There’s a lot of voter suppression going on in the Black community where they’re trying to take away our right to vote, take away our right to be heard and take away anything we can do to continue to make change,” James said during his virtual reception of the President’s Award. 

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He added: “For us to come together, with some of my former athletes and fellow artists, it meant so much to be able to do what we did in the November election and being able to bring things to where we felt like it would be better for our community and for America.”

Also during his speech, LeBron said he hopes his philanthropic work and activism – starting with his I Promise School in Akron, Ohio, and continued with his SpringHill media company – will help elevate Black voices and talent moving forward.

“It gives me an opportunity to give out jobs to some of the greatest creators, the greatest minds that we could find and I’m happy I could provide that,” he said.

Watch his full acceptance speech above.