Workplace hair discrimination is a topic that has floated through the media for the past several years. To prohibit discrimination, California has implemented the “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act.” Specifically, California’s CROWN Act amends California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), an act that functions to prohibit specified discriminatory employment practices, by expanding the definition of race to be “inclusive of traits historically associated with race [such as] hair texture and protective hairstyles”— ultimately banning discrimination against natural black hairstyles. As of August 2022, an additional 17 states and more than 40 municipalities have enacted their own versions of the CROWN Act to prohibit hairstyle discrimination.
On July 1, 2022, Tennessee became the first state in the Mid-South to adopt CROWN legislation. Tennessee’s CROWN Act prohibits employers from adopting a policy that does not permit an employee to wear their hair in braids, locs, twists, or another manner that is symbolic of the cultural identification of the employee’s ethnic group or is a physical characteristic of the employee’s ethnic group.
Tennessee’s law, however, does not create a private right of action. Instead, an employee may file a complaint with the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development who shall warn the employer of their violation. Furthermore, the law is not applicable to:
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