Race-based hair discrimination garnered national attention last summer when the CROWN—Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair—Coalition worked to outlaw intolerance based on style, type, and texture.
Cofounded by Dove, the National Urban League, Color Of Change, and the Western Center on Law and Poverty, the movement is working to create a “more equitable and inclusive beauty experience for Black women and girls” with a bill that ensures hair traits historically associated with ethnicity are protected at work and at school.
Called the “Crown Act,” it was introduced by California State Senator Holly Mitchell. It’s the first bill in American history to ban hair discrimination, and several states have already passed it.
The CROWN Coalition is officially declaring this July 3 “National CROWN Day” to mark the the 1-year anniversary of the signing of the bill in California. The celebration will feature “a full day of virtual conversations,” according to a press release. People will be encouraged to #PassTheCrown and sign a petition to end hair-based discrimination on thecrownact.com.
The legislation was long overdue. In August 2018, 11-year-old Faith Fennidy left her Louisiana classroom in tears after school officials said her braids violated school policy. Five months later, high school wrestler Andrew Johnson was forced to shave his dreadlocks in public before competing in the 120-pound weight class. That same year in Alabama, Chastity Jones claimed she lost a job offer after refusing to cut her dreadlocks.
These stories, Mitchell told Essence, “were the wind that gave us the opportunity to help challenge public perception, to help us push back on employer perception, to change the law.”