This Texas law would ban discrimination based on your natural hairstyle
A group of Texas lawmakers have filed a bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against people with braids, locks and twists and hairstyles historically associated with race.
The legislation, known as the CROWN Act, has passed in nine states and in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the office of State Rep. Rhetta Andrews Bowers, a Garland Democrat who authored the bill, but it has not been set for a hearing in the House’s State Affairs committee.
“The fundamental right to show up as your authentic self must be protected,” Bowers said during a Tuesday news conference. “Fearing consequences of going to work or school with your natural hair simply shouldn’t occur. Worrying if you’ll be be fired or suspended because of wearing a protective style that preserves the health of your hair have to come to an end.”
House Bill 392, which has the support of the Legislative Black Caucus including Chair Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, would bar schools and employers from adopting a dress or grooming policies that discriminate “against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race.”
“For so long, African Americans have had to conform. Conform to society,” Collier said. “Our hair tends to be naturally curly, but yet in order to make other people feel comfortable, we straighten our hair. Why do we have to do that? We are comfortable the way we are, and so we should be entitled to, we should not be judged, we should not be looked upon poorly because we decide to wear our hair in the natural state.”
In March 2019, two black teenagers said they were denied jobs at at Six Flags Over Texas because of their hairstyles. During the Monday news conference, Hope Cozart of Troy said her son Maddox was given in-school suspension for 11 days because of the way he wore his hair.
“Eleven days of being pulled out of class and away from his peers,” she said. “Eleven days of being examined by multiple educators and deemed inappropriate to attend class with his peers.”
State Board of Education member Aicha Davis, who represents parts of Dallas and Tarrant County, said it is important everything be done to ensure students have the opportunity to be in the classroom, calling the proposal “one of the most important bills in education this legislative session.”
“Students of African descent in Texas are overdisciplined and underserved, so the least we can do is not discriminate against them because of their hair,” Davis said.
In order for the bill to become law, it must pass in both the House and Senate and get Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature. State Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, and others at the news conference asked the bill be given a committee hearing and made law.
“The time to act is now,” he said.
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 1:06 PM.
