School, college and other closings for Monday

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

A host of Black Democratic lawmakers reintroduced legislation Wednesday that would ban discrimination against a person's hairstyle or hair texture.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., led a group

of 84 lawmakers in sponsoring the reintroduction of 

, or the CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

The bill — which was previously passed in the House in 2019 and 

, but blocked in the Senate — aims to end race-based hair discrimination in schools and workplaces for Black Americans and other communities of color.

If signed into law, the act would prohibit discrimination based on hairstyle or hair texture that is coiled or tightly curled — including locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, Afros or any other hairstyle that is commonly associated with a race or national origin.

Minneapolis celebrates 1st anniversary of CROWN Act banning hair discrimination

 that lawmakers were introducing the bill again because "no worker, no student, no person should ever face discrimination because of how their hair grows out of their heads."

"We can't control the texture of our hair any way that we can control the color of our skin," Watson Coleman said. "... and yet, Black Americans routinely face discrimination simply because of the way their hair looks."

Adjoa B. Asamoah, a scholar and strategist leading the nationwide CROWN Act movement, told reporters Wednesday that "race-neutral" grooming policies reinforce 

"There is a longstanding history of racial discrimination against natural hair and protective styles in the workplace, schools, and society at large," Asamoah said. 

"...I have worked tirelessly to pass the CROWN Act and shift culture to mitigate the physical, psychological, and economic harm caused by race-based hair discrimination," she added.

California was the first state to sign the act into law back in 2019, and 

 and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Texas is the 

latest state to implement a version of the law

. The legislation has been proposed in 20 additional states and Washington, D.C.

previously blocked attempts at passing the bill

; in 2022, the legislation didn't get enough support from Republicans to override a filibuster from Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul. 

News of the reintroduction of the CROWN Act comes months after the ongoing battle of Darryl George, a Black high school student in Texas 

who was suspended for more than a month for wearing a natural hairstyle

, was brought into the national spotlight.

The 19-year-old senior at Barbers Hill High School in the Houston area

has faced numerous suspensions since the start of the 2023-24 school year due to what school administrators say is a violation of the school's dress code.

George's natural locs fall below his eyebrows and ear lobes, which school officials say 

The 19-year-old was suspended just before 

 statewide on Sept 1, 2023. Later that month, he and his mother filed a lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state's attorney general, saying they failed to enforce the law.   

Politics and Government News

Social Issues

Conversations around race and racial justice

Homepage

Jonathan Franklin

Author

The bill which was previously passed in the House in 2019 and 2022 but blocked in the Senate, aims to end race-based hair discrimination in schools and workplaces.

Black lawmakers reintroduce federal CROWN Act legislation to ban hair discrimination

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox