Missouri To Become Latest State With CROWN Act Protections
Missouri Awaits Governor’s Signature To Become Latest State To Enact CROWN Act Protections
As of now, 27 states across America have passed some version of the CROWN Act, a piece of legislation that prevents discrimination over Black hairstyles. Missouri could soon be the 28th state with CROWN Act protections should Gov. Mike Kehoe sign off on the bill.
According to KCUR, Kansas City and St. Louis have both passed CROWN Act laws on a local level, but state-level legislation has been in the works since 2020. Missouri’s CROWN Act bill was sponsored by state Sen. Barbara Washington (D-Kansas City) and enshrines protections for students in preschools and K-12 schools that receive public funding.
CROWN, which is an acronym for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, prevents schools from discriminating against students for having curls, locs, dreads, afros, and basically any other hairstyle that doesn’t come naturally to white people.
Missouri’s CROWN Act would only apply to educational settings, as efforts to enshrine the protections beyond that have fallen flat in the state. State Rep. LaKeySha Bosley (D-St. Louis), introduced a version of the legislation that would expand the state’s definition of workplace discrimination to include “traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles.” Bosley’s bills weren’t referred to the House committee until the end of the legislative session, when there wasn’t time for a hearing to consider them.
California was the first state to pass CROWN Act legislation in 2019. The legislation came as several stories arose of Black students being forced to alter their hairstyles to attend school or participate in extracurricular activities. One such story was Andrew Johnson, who was forced to cut his locs or risk being disqualified from a wrestling tournament.
A similar incident occurred in 2018 when Darryl George was suspended from Barbers Hill High School in Texas for wearing his hair in locs. The suspension led to a discrimination lawsuit where a judge ruled in favor of the school. One of the strangest details of the case was a full-page newspaper ad taken out by the school district’s superintendent defending the suspension by saying, “being an American requires conformity.”
White people confuse me, y’all. One second, they’re talking about “rebel pride,” and the next, they’re arguing why everyone needs to conform to societal expectations. They really need to pick a lane.
Texas would eventually pass a version of the CROWN Act into law in 2023, and the Congressional Black Caucus invited George to President Biden’s State of the Union address last year as a result of the court ruling.
Washington referenced these stories during the state Senate’s debate session over the bill. She argued that children should not be deprived of educational or extracurricular opportunities “simply because they chose to wear their hair in braids or an afro or dreadlocks.” The bill only faced opposition from one Republican senator who felt that the protections weren’t needed. The bill passed as part of a larger package of legislation tied to anti-discrimination and anti-hazing measures for schools.
While there’s undoubtedly been progress on the state level, there was a push last year by Democrats in Congress to get the CROWN Act enshrined through federal legislation. Considering President Trump’s ongoing war on anything that makes Black people’s lives easier, I’m sadly doubtful any CROWN Act legislation on the federal level would prove successful in the near future.
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