(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro traveled to Philadelphia Tuesday to sign the CROWN Act into law, officially extending discrimination protections to hairstyles.
The signing makes Pennsylvania the 28th state to enact such legislation, ending what advocates say has been decades of missed opportunities for Black women whose natural hair was frequently deemed “unprofessional.”
Among those women are House Speaker Rep. Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, and Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes, D-Pittsburgh, who saw the bill through the House after years of effort. They shared stories about years of relaxing and straightening their hair to succeed in the workplace and their mothers’ and grandmothers’ cautions against natural hairstyles.
“Today, natural hair is protected – every coil, every kink, every curl,” said Mayes. “And on this day, my message is simply this: Your hair is perfect as it is. Your hair is professional as it is. Your hair is powerful as it is. Because you are enough. Your hair is enough exactly as it grows out of your head.”
McClinton said her choice to start wearing natural hairstyles began on a whim during her tenure practicing law in Philadelphia.
“I was already fighting for people’s lives literally, so I thought, and it was my understanding for me to have the respect of the judge and of the jury that I needed to look a certain way every single day,” said McClinton. “My clients, my colleagues as a defender, they never saw anything that you all see now.”
The law received overwhelming bipartisan support this legislative session, following the organization of a coalition of individuals, unions, businesses and even cities supporting the bill. The legislation will update the state’s Human Relations act so that discrimination complaints can be filed to the state Human Relations Commission.
“Look, we know that this is an issue that disproportionately affects Black Pennsylvanians who wear their hair in protective styles like locs, natural braids or twists, and it can manifest itself in a number of different ways,” said Shapiro. “From someone getting fired simply because of how they look, or maybe someone getting passed over for a job because of how they wear their hair – that’s unacceptable.”
Advocates say, it isn’t just women’s professional lives that suffer from race-based hair discrimination. It comes at a cost to their health.
“With an undeniable correlation between the use of chemical relaxers and the increased likelihood of developing uterine fibroids and cancer, the cost of conformity is simply too expensive,” said the policy leader behind the bill, Dr. Adjoa Asamoah.
A Philadelphia native, Asamoah, first conceived of the CROWN Act and has pushed for its adoption across the country, including in Congress where it has received bipartisan support in both chambers.
Asked whether the current political climate might pose a challenge to passing the law federally or upholding it in the state, “I don’t care what Donald Trump says,” said Shapiro. “We make the laws here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and we will protect the CROWN Act.”
