PBS News Hour

AMNA NAWAZ: Today is known as CROWN Act Day, in honor of the date when legislation prohibiting discrimination based on hair texture or style was first passed at the state level.

Our communities correspondent, Gabrielle Hays, in St. Louis has more on what this means in her city.

GABRIELLE HAYS: Natural black hair is often unfairly seen as inappropriate in many spaces like the work environment, school, and even on camera.

However, legislation first passed in 2019 is hoping to make that discrimination illegal.

At the same time, many Black women, like entrepreneur Leslie Hughes, are embracing their natural hair.

My curls have been a journey, OK, so I just wonder what has your hair journey been like?

LESLIE HUGHES, Founder, Frizz Fest: Oh, girl, the same.

It's been a journey with a lot of ups and downs.

(LAUGHTER) GABRIELLE HAYS: The CROWN Act, first introduced in California, stands for Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair; 23 states have passed similar bills.

Some states, like Missouri, have not.

Cities within the state, however, have, including St. Louis.

Hughes started a festival to celebrate natural hair in St. Louis called Frizz Fest, so she could carve out a space for self-love.

LESLIE HUGHES: I was really happy if just my family and friends showed up.

And from the first event, we had 600 RSVPs.

And I was like, oh, my God.

But to now, to having thousands of people showing up, like, I am just in awe.

GABRIELLE HAYS: Kimberly Norwood, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, says the CROWN Act is meant to ban hairstyle discrimination nationwide, discrimination that heavily targets the Black community.

KIMBERLY NORWOOD, Washington University in St. Louis: It started maybe in 2019 or so to sort of respond to a lot of employment policies and school policies that were punishing people who had hair texture like mine, pretty much punishing people of African descent and prohibiting people from wearing their hair in the natural state.

GABRIELLE HAYS: Norwood has spent years researching racial bias.

She says Black people should feel safe to wear their hair how they want, especially in places like schools, where Black students are disproportionately disciplined.

KIMBERLY NORWOOD: People aren't getting offers because of their hair, not because it's not clean, unkempt, because it's in braids, because it's in an afro, because it's in locs, right?

And that is something that is pretty connected to African descendant people.

So it's a real targeted form of discrimination that woefully negatively impacts Black Americans in particular.

GABRIELLE HAYS: A 2019 study by personal care brand Dove found that Black women are one-and-a-half times more likely to be sent home from their workplace because of their hair and are also 80 percent more likely to change their hair from its natural state in order to avoid discrimination in an office setting.

For Hughes, Norwood, and many others, normalizing natural hair for Black people everywhere is more than just undoing decades of harmful hair practices.

It is also about coming to a place of self-acceptance.

KIMBERLY NORWOOD: When I was a child, my mother used to put a hot comb, called it, on a burner, and that burner had gas fire, and then she would straighten my hair.

And then that limited my ability to run.

It limited my ability to swim, because your hair will revert to its natural position.

LESLIE HUGHES: Our hair is who we are.

Our different hairstyles,it's part of our heritage, our ancestors.

So being able to feel like we can live freely and comfortable in every space, exactly how we want, is very important.

GABRIELLE HAYS: Law Professor Norwood says it's the people behind the CROWN Act in the spaces like Frizz Fest in St. Louis that fight to ensure natural black hair doesn't face discrimination.

KIMBERLY NORWOOD: We can't just go off and sit in a corner, right, licking our wounds because our hair has been rejected.

We have to continue the fight.

GABRIELLE HAYS: Big steps and small that aim to shift the perception of natural black hair.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Gabrielle Hays.

AMNA NAWAZ: Online, you can read more about what cities are doing to prevent hair-related discrimination.

That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.