Since 2019, community leaders, organizations, and lawmakers have influenced a movement to introduce legislation—at all levels of government—that prohibits workplace discrimination based upon hairstyle and hair texture.

This movement stems from US history of laws and societal norms that consider Black or other ethnic hairstyles to be unprofessional.

In the workplace, these standards of “professionalism” surrounding hair texture and hairstyle can erect a deceptive barrier to employment opportunities for applicants who come from a variety of backgrounds.

Frequently called the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act, variations on this legislation have targeted discrimination based upon a person’s hair texture or hairstyle—if that hair texture or hairstyle is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin, including hairstyles historically associated with Black people such as locs, cornrows, braids, twists, Bantu knots, and Afros.

Legislative Activity

CROWN Act legislation has already been enacted in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, and the...

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