Rep. Watson Coleman, Congressional Black Caucus Members Urge Senate Leadership to Include CROWN Act in End-of-Year Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 15, 2022) — Today, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) led a group of her colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus in a letter calling for Senate leadership to include the Congresswoman’s CROWN Act in its end-of-year omnibus funding legislation.

The CROWN Act would prohibit discrimination based on a person’s hair texture or hairstyle if that style or texture is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin. Specifically, the bill prohibits this type of discrimination against those participating in federally assisted programs, housing programs, public accommodations, and employment. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans, led by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), blocked the bill’s passage.

The letter reads in part:

This is not “just a hair” issue, this is a Civil Rights issue. Hair-based discrimination remains a source of racial injustice with serious economic consequences for Black people. Yet, current interpretations of Civil Rights legislation often limit anti-discrimination protections to skin color, but not hair. This continues to leave many Black people vulnerable to discriminatory practices.

Many Black people face discrimination at school, in the workplace, and elsewhere because the way their hair naturally grows out of their heads is deemed “unacceptable” or “unprofessional.” Specifically, Black women are 1.5 times more likely than white women to be sent home from work because of their hair.

The letter continues:

The CROWN Act bridges the gap in current anti-discrimination legislation. This bill would prohibit discrimination based on an individual’s style or texture of hair by including an individual’s style of hair that is tightly coiled or tightly-curled, locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, Afros and any other style of hair commonly associated with a race or national origin in the definition of racial discrimination.

The letter, addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is signed by Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Stacey E. Plaskett (VI-AL), Shontel Brown (OH-11), Henry “Hank” Johnson (GA-04), Donald Payne Jr. (NJ-10), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Barbara Lee (CA-13), Terri Sewell (AL-07), Nikema Williams (GA-05), Gwen Moore (WI-04), Kweisi Mfume (MD-07), G.K. Butterfield (NC-01), Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05), Val Demings (FL-10), Steven Horsford (NV-04), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Bobby Scott (VA-03), Andre Carson (IN-07), Al Green (TX-09), Danny K. Davis (IL-07), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE-AL), Bennie Thompson (MS-02), Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09), Jahana Hayes (CT-05), Brenda L. Lawrence (MI-14), and Frederica S. Wilson (FL-24).

The letter is attached to this email and can be read here.