CROWN Act at front of mind for Black Pittsburghers

The goal of the CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) is to protect against racial-based hairstyle discrimination. Not only is it becoming a national issue because of the Darryl George case, but it’s a topic that’s being discussed locally, as well.

State Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes (D-Allegheny) introduced the CROWN Act in the state of Pennsylvania.

“You can be discriminated against if you are Black based on how you wear your hair, the locs, braids, afros and twists. You can lose your job, you can be denied the right to go to school, or be barred from restaurants and public spaces. We need to ban race-based hair discrimination, we are committed to getting it passed,” Mayes said during the GRWM Runway Experience last month.

The need seems even more urgent now.

Last month’s verdict in the Texas case regarding George, a Black high school student suspended for wearing his hair in locs — which resulted in a complaint with the Texas Education Agency and a civil rights lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Barbers Hill Independent School District — was disappointing but not surprising, according to local Black residents familiar with the lawsuit.

On Feb. 22, a Texas judge ruled that the suspension was lawful, citing that the CROWN Act makes no explicit specification regarding hair length.

“The ruling just upholds the racism that takes place in this country. I’m disappointed,” said Muhammad Ali Nasir, advocacy and policy civic engagement coordinator at 1Hood Media, a Pittsburgh broadcasting and media production company.

Quincy Swatson, a student advocate in the Equity Office of Pittsburgh Public Schools, can relate to George. Swatson worked at a prominent hotel in downtown Pittsburgh and said he was fired for his locs when he was 18.

“The hotel I worked at was a very anti-Black space, and there were rules in their policies and procedures that excluded folks for how their hair grew,” Swatson said.

At this particular hotel, Swatson said, he could wear his locs — however, there was a specification regarding “neat parts.”

“If I had any types of locs, I had to be able to see my scalp,” Swatson said.

He said that this particular specification was difficult to adhere to because clear parting lines can only be seen right after a retwist. Otherwise, after a day or two, the hair will move back to how it naturally lays, and “you won’t see the parts as crisply,” Swatson said.

In his current position, Swatson is focused on empowering students. His work is centered on the understanding that positive cultural identity translates to increased student success rates.

“The more you feel comfortable and positive about who you are as a racial being, the better you will perform,” he said. “When people are reprimanded for how they are as a racial being, they have a decreased sense of a positive outlook on who they are and decreased motivation to strive for certain markers of success. They don’t believe they fit in the category of people who might achieve success.”

When he heard the verdict that also took place toward the end of Black History Month, it cemented the importance of his role.

Olivia “Liv” Bennett can imagine what George was facing in Texas. When she was a member of Allegheny County Council, she was the primary sponsor for legislation enacted to protect people and students in Pittsburgh from what George is wading through in Texas. She said she is perplexed as to why George must conform to something that he is not in order to receive an education.

“It should not be this way,” Bennett said.

The local version of the CROWN Act passed in Allegheny County and the city of Pittsburgh.

Her motivation was a Black student who was targeted for his hair at Central Catholic High School. Bennett is a graduate of Oakland Catholic and also wears her hair in locs. When she was working on the legislation, her hair was purple and in a mohawk — so the law protected her as well.

“I know what it is like to be a person of color in those types of schools,” Bennett said. “And so I immediately wrote to the school principal voicing my displeasure for how they were treating this student because of his hair. … Then I recognized I was on County Council and I could change the law.”

Bennett said that a person should never have to be something that they are not to be accepted in society.

“These things are a natural part of our heritage, and it should not be frowned upon. It should be accepted and celebrated,” she said of hairstyles that are braided, in locs or cornrows.

Swatson didn’t cut his locs after the incident with the hotel, but he did about two years later. Giving in to the pressure, he felt it would help him engage more with the corporate world. In hindsight, he said he regrets that choice.

Kellie Ware is director of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Allegheny County Bar Association. As a person with locs and a parent of children with locs, she said the ruling is very upsetting.

“It’s important to be able to express yourself. Hair has always been political for Black folks,” Ware said. “Just let us be. It’s no longer about personal choice for a school district, the same way uniforms might be.”

On Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Union Trust Building, Mayes and Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Rep. Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) will lead a discussion on the Pennsylvania CROWN Act (H.B. 1394). To register, click here.