Texas House Passes CROWN Act To Ban Hair Discrimination, Heads To Senate

Texas is the latest state on the move to pass legislation banning race-based hair discrimination. The Texas House passed the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act, HB 567, with a 143-5 vote.

[SEE ALSO: Minnesota Senate Passes Bill Banning Race-Based Discrimination]

The CROWN Act is a legal movement spearheaded by the CROWN Coalition over the past six years to make discrimination against people of color for their hair a human rights issue. Texas Rep. Rhetta Andrew Bowers first began working on the bill in 2020 after two Houston students made national headlines for getting suspended after refusing to cut their locks.

Barber Hills ISD told senior De’Andre Arnold, who had worn his locs for years, he could not walk at his graduation unless he cut them. His cousin, sophomore Kaden Bradford, was also put on at-home suspension. The district has since voted to keep the policy in place.

In Texas, the bill would make it illegal in school and the workplace to discriminate based on certain hairstyles — including braids, locs, and twists.

“And it is just necessary for men, women and children to just feel accepted the way their hair grows naturally out of their heads,” said Rep. Bowers. “How the hair naturally grows out of our heads should have nothing to do with what is inside. And therefore with any of the success that we accomplish, the time is now for Texas to take up this civil rights legislation and protect the people from racial discrimination.”

“Many thanks to Rep. Bowers for championing the CROWN Act here in Texas,” said Tashara Parker, Emmy award-winning journalist who went viral in 2020 for wearing her natural hair on broadcast television. Parker has since become an avid supporter of the CROWN Act, even testifying in support of the bill last month.

“We are conditioned to accept a certain standard of professionalism and for a long time, natural hair and hairstyles did not meet the established standard of what that professionalism is,” she said, calling on the committee to begin a new chapter of change.

An identical version of the bill SB 1356, authored by state Sen. Borris Miles, is now awaiting a hearing date in the Senate State Affairs Committee. If passed in the senate, it will become law.

The Act has been signed into law in nearly two dozen states and territories across the country. Here is a list of all the states that have passed the CROWN Act or similar anti-hair discrimination laws thus far:

• California (2019)
• New York (2019)
• New Jersey (2019)
• Maryland (2020)
• Virginia (2020)
• Colorado (2020)
• Washington (2020)
• Connecticut (2021)
• Delaware (2021)
• New Mexico (2021)
• Nevada (2021)
• Nebraska (2021) 
• Oregon (2021) 
• Illinois (2022) –extended from in-school only in 2021 to now include the workplace
• Maine (2022)
• Tennessee (2022)
• U.S. Virgin Islands (2022)
• Massachusetts (2022)
• Minnesota (2023)

Is your state not listed? You can join the movement by clicking here to sign a petition calling on governors and state lawmakers to get on board.