It's been two years since Columbus passed the CROWN Act, and supporters of natural hair styles will hold their first-ever celebration event on Saturday at COSI.
The CROWN Act stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.” It was designed to end discrimination for people wearing their hair in cultural styles, such as braided cornrows and dreadlocks.
"The event will be an opportunity, one to provide education around the CROWN Act as a law, and the protections against discrimination that the law comes with,” said Nicole Harper, Chief Program Officer for the Commission on Black Girls. “It will be also an opportunity to have fun and interactive engagements for girls, where they can understand how to use their voice or to advocate.”
Harper said employers in general are not allowed to discriminate based upon the hairstyle worn by an employee.
“We also want to normalize the ability for people to wear their hair in styles that are maybe more the texture of their hair, as more is exposed, or in styling that is protective or maybe cultural and may have some cultural significance,” said Harper.
Harper said several cities have enacted their own similar laws protecting hair expression.
“There continues to be a need for this because we see the stories where there have been lawsuits, or we see stories where things have happened in schools and students have had to do various things with their hair,” said Harper.
