It’s Not Just Hair: New Orleans CROWN Act Is A First For The Deep South But, Advocates Hope, Just The Beginning
New Orleans attorney Nia Weeks remembers the concerned comments she received from older Black women when she decided to grow locs three years ago.
“You can’t go into a court with locs. No one’s gonna hire you,” they told her.
At its last meeting in 2020, New Orleans City Council made a move to address those worries when it passed the C.R.O.W.N. Act Ordinance, which prohibits race-based hair discrimination, including the denial of employment and housing because of hair texture or protective hairstyles like braids, dreadlocks and bantu knots.
C.R.O.W.N. is an acronym for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. The C.R.O.W.N. Study, by cosmetic company Dove, revealed Black women are 80 percent more likely to change their hair to fit social norms and workplace expectations. Those changes often include straightening their hair with extreme heat or harsh chemical relaxers.
While Birmingham passed a resolution to recognize July 3 as National C.R.O.W.N. Day last summer, New Orleans was the first municipality in the Deep South to adopt a C.R.O.W.N. Act.
“It was the best Christmas present that I could have even thought of giving to Black women. It was a love letter and a thank you in action,” Weeks said. “Black women are not a monolith, but our hair and the experiences, the prejudice that we experience, is a unified issue, regardless of age, demographics, geography [and] socioeconomic status.”
At about 38 and 32 percent respectively, the Black populations in Mississippi and Louisiana make up a larger proportion of the population than in any other state. Still, race-based hair discrimination persists in these states, creating barriers to employment and education and to freedoms that others take for granted.
Read the full story from our partners at WWNO here.
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama, WWNO in New Orleans and NPR.
4 astronauts splashdown on SpaceX capsule to end Axiom Space’s private Ax-4 mission
The private crew included Ax-4 mission commander and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. It was her fifth trip to space and extended her record-setting duration to 695 days, the most of any American.
Heavy rains and flash flooding sweep across Northeast
Flash flood watches and warnings were in place in parts of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas as downpours moved through the region.
Will Congress cut funds to NPR/PBS and foreign aid this week?
The Trump Administration has asked Congress to rescind funds for NPR/PBS and Foreign aid. Congress has until the end of the week to approve the cuts.
Power prices are expected to soar under new tax cut and spending law
In states without policies to drive renewable energy, power prices could surge as federal tax incentives for clean energy disappear, according to Energy Innovation, a think tank.
This family wants to have more babies, but not in a hospital
The Trump administration is encouraging people to have more children, with baby bonuses and tax breaks. But some families who are practicing pronatalism want alternatives to hospital births.
Republicans renew a bid to remove noncitizens from the census tally behind voting maps
GOP lawmakers are trying again to exclude millions of non-U.S. citizens living in the states from census counts that the 14th Amendment says must include the "whole number of persons in each state."
