A Creative Crown Project

The CROWN Act effectively closes a gap left by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ensuring that race-based hair discrimination is explicitly recognized as a form of racial discrimination. It strengthens protections for Black individuals by preventing employers and schools from enforcing policies that target natural hair and protective styles, which are deeply tied to racial and cultural identity.

While Title VII prohibits any form of discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, it did not explicitly cover traits such as hair texture and hairstyles closely associated with racial identity, like natural or protective styles found within Black community. This allowed for continued discrimination through workplace and school grooming policies that labeled natural or protective hairstyles like afros, braids, and locs as unprofessional or inappropriate

The CROWN Act expands the legal definition of race to include hair texture and protective hairstyles, making it clear that these traits are integral to racial identity. This is especially important because courts have historically ruled that hairstyle discrimination was not racial discrimination under Title VII, as seen in cases like EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions (2016) where Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued Catastrophe Management Solutions (CMS) on behalf of Chastity Jones, a Black woman whose job offer was rescinded because she refused to cut off her dreadlocks. The company had a grooming policy that prohibited “excessive hairstyles” like dreadlocks, and they argued that this was not a form of racial discrimination. The court ruled in favor of Catastrophe Management Solutions, stating that Title VII only protects individuals against discrimination based on immutable characteristics, such as skin color, and not mutable characteristics, like hairstyles. The court held that hairstyles are not an inherent part of race, making it legal for CMS to enforce its policy

While Title VII aimed to ensure equality in employment and education, many Black people still faced systemic bias, particularly when their natural hairstyles were deemed unprofessional.

The CROWN Act recognizes that such biases are a form of racial discrimination, and it ensures individuals cannot be forced to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards to access employment or education