MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on Saturday urged black athletes to boycott Auburn University until the school rehires two black athletics administrators.

Former administrators Stacy Danley and Eugene Harris were fired Feb. 10 in an administrative shakeup under Auburn's new athletics director.

Charles Steele Jr., president of the Atlanta-based civil rights group, called on black athletes considering Auburn to boycott the university until Danley and Harris are rehired.

The statement endorsed a vote by the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus on Feb. 24.

Steele, of Tuscaloosa, served in the Alabama Senate and the Black Caucus before taking the SCLC post in Atlanta.

Steele was in Selma, Ala. this weekend for events marking the 40th anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Steele said the black athletes should boycott Auburn until the university "takes a really strong look at addressing and correcting its reported discriminatory practices."

"I strongly urge Auburn University to address this matter immediately," Steele said. "If not, we may have to extend the Selma-to-Montgomery march on toward Auburn."

He said Auburn, "like any other institution, must ensure that it offers equal opportunities and privileges to everyone, regardless of race, nationality, gender, or creed. I am in full support of those working to make sure that Auburn addresses the issue of diversity on its campus and in its Athletic Department and that they re-examine and reverse their decision to lay off Danley and Harris."

In an earlier statement, new Athletic Director Jay Jacobs said Danley and Harris were dismissed because their jobs weren't needed under Jacobs' restructuring of the department.

Jacobs noted that a white member of the department, marketing coordinator Marvin Julich, was also fired; and two blacks, Virgil Starks and David Mines, were promoted to associate athletic director posts.

Auburn's interim assistant provost for diversity and multicultural affairs, Kennan Grenell, earlier described the removal of Danley and Harris as blatantly discriminatory. He had urged the SCLC to protest the firings. Grenell did not immediately return a phone message left at his home Saturday.