[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 75 (Wednesday, May 1, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E431-E432]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CROWN ACT PRESS CONFERENCE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 1, 2024

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me start by thanking Rep. Bonnie 
Watson Coleman and the rest of my colleagues here for hosting this 
gathering today.
  The introduction of the CROWN Act is an important step in the 
national conversation on race-based hair discrimination.
  The CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) 
helps protect an estimated 2.3 million Black children nationwide who 
are most vulnerable to race-based hair discrimination.
  To date, the CROWN Act has been enacted in 24 states and numerous 
municipalities.
  And while the CROWN Act was signed into law last year in Texas, hair 
discrimination in Texas is still hurting Black children and minorities 
across the state.
  On February 22, 2024, a Texas judge ruled that the CROWN Act was not 
violated following the suspension of Darryl George for the length of 
his locs.
  The judge's decision:
  ``The CROWN Act could've been written to provide the individuals with 
braids, locs and twists (to be) exempt from any hair length 
restrictions, but it has no such exemption,'' said Judge Chap B. Cain 
III, of the 253rd Judicial District Court in Chambers County. ``The 
CROWN Act is clear and BHISD's dress and grooming code policy is clear 
regarding male students.''
  ``Courts should always refrain from rewriting legislative text,'' 
Cain said, reading what appeared to be a prepared speech. ``That's not 
my job. Where text is clear--it's determinative--judges should not 
legislate from the bench and I'm not about to start today.''
  ``The immunity that you seek, you can have that from either of those 
bodies,'' Cain said. ``The legislature can go back, and I suspect they 
will, and they can decide that hair length cannot be regulated by the 
school, and then the school board's going to follow it. Or you can go 
to the school board and ask for a change in their policy.''
  The CROWN Act is necessary legislation that explicitly prohibits 
discrimination on the basis of hair texture or hairstyles commonly 
associated with a particular race or national origin in areas of the 
law where discrimination

[[Page E432]]

on the basis of race or national origin is already prohibited.
  The history of hair braiding dates back 3500 BC or over five thousand 
years in African culture.
  According to hair braiding experts, Braiding started in Africa with 
the Himba people of Namibia.
  For a Himba woman, her hair is her power.
  These semi-nomadic people live in one of the most extreme 
environments on earth, the deserts that border Namibia with Angola.
  As water is scarce, they use a mixture of pastes on both their bodies 
and hair.
  These pastes blend the aromatic resin of the omazumba shrub with 
animal fat and ground red pigmented stone. This `otjize' paste gives 
the women's skin and hair a distinctive red glow which symbolizes both 
blood, the essence of life, and the earth's rich red color.
  Hairstyles play a significant role within the Himba community and 
reflect marital status, age, wealth, and rank within the group.
  Hair braiding is a communal activity with a range of styles differing 
from tribe to tribe.
  This origin of hair braiding is a rich and textured art form that 
speaks deeply to persons of African descent over millennia and 
resonates to this day.
  Hair styles remain very significant in African American culture and 
are one of the many ways this culture is expressed.
  Attacks on hair style are not unique to African people, Sheks, Jews, 
Pentecostal to name a few have hairstyles that are dictated by culture 
and beliefs.
  Because Africans were enslaved persons does not mean they have lost 
all claim to African heritage, culture, or beliefs.
  In the United States and among persons of African heritage the 
braiding of men's and boy's hair is accepted and widely practiced.
  It has long been my position that discrimination based on hair 
texture and hairstyle is a form of impermissible race discrimination.
  In 2021 the Dove CROWN Research for Girls found that:
  53 percent of Black mothers, whose daughters have experienced hair 
discrimination, say their daughters experienced discrimination as early 
as 5 years old.
  86 percent of Black teens who experience discrimination state they 
have experienced discrimination based on their hair by the age of 12.
  100 percent of Black elementary school girls in majority-white 
schools who report experiencing discrimination state they experienced 
the discrimination by the age of 10.
  According to a 2019 report, known as the CROWN Study, which was 
conducted by the JOY Collective (CROWN Act Coalition, Dove/Unilever, 
National Urban League, Color of Change), Black people are 
``disproportionately burdened by policies and practices in public 
places, including the workplace, that target, profile, or single them 
out for their natural hair styles--referring to the texture of hair 
that is not permed, dyed, relaxed, or chemically altered.''
  The CROWN Study found that Black women's hair is ``more policed in 
the workplace, thereby contributing to a climate of group control in 
the company culture and perceived professional barriers'' compared to 
non-Black women.
  The study also found that ``Black women are more likely to have 
received formal grooming policies in the workplace, and to believe that 
there is a dissonance from her hair and other race's hair'' and that 
``Black women's hairstyles were consistently rated lower or `less 
ready' for job performance.''
  Among the study's other findings are that 80 percent of Black women 
believed that they had to change their hair from its natural state to 
``fit in at the office,'' that they were 83 percent more likely to be 
judged harshly because of their looks.
  The study indicated that Black women were 1.5 times more likely to be 
sent home from the workplace because of their hair, and that they were 
3.4 times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional compared to 
non-African American women.
  Eight years ago, the United States Army removed a grooming regulation 
prohibiting women servicemembers from wearing their hair in dreadlocks, 
a regulation that had a disproportionately adverse impact on Black 
women.
  This decision was the result of a 2014 order by then-Secretary of 
Defense Chuck Hagel to review the military's policies regarding 
hairstyles popular with African American women after complaints from 
members of Congress, myself included, that the policies unfairly 
targeted black women.
  In 2015, the Marine Corps followed suit and issued regulations to 
permit lock and twist hairstyles.
  The CROWN Study illustrates the prevalence of hair discrimination but 
numerous stories across the country put names and faces to the people 
behind those numbers.
  In 2017, a Banana Republic employee was told by a manager that she 
was violating the company's dress code because her box braids were too 
``urban'' and ``unkempt.''
  A year later, in 2018, Andrew Johnson, a New Jersey high school 
student, was forced by a white referee to either have his dreadlocks 
cut or forfeit a wrestling match, leading him to have his hair cut in 
public by an athletic trainer immediately before the match.
  That same year, an 11-year-old Black girl in Louisiana was asked to 
leave class at a private Roman Catholic school near New Orleans because 
her braided hair extensions violated the school's policies.
  The next year, two African American men in Texas alleged being denied 
employment by Six Flags because of their hairstyles--one had long 
braids and the other had dreadlocks.
  And earlier this year, there were news reports of a Texas student who 
would not be allowed to walk at graduation because his dreadlocks were 
too long.
  The CROWN Act prohibits discrimination in federally funded programs 
and activities based on an individual's hair texture or hairstyle if it 
is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin, 
including ``a hairstyle in which hair is tightly coiled or tightly 
curled, locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, and Afros.''
  I strongly support this legislation and I will be working to protect 
the Constitutional Rights of all Americans in their choice of hair 
style and I ask my colleagues to join me in this effort.

                          ____________________