An Ohio bill that would do just that Banning discrimination against natural hair in work, housing and K-12 public schools is one step closer to becoming law.
Ohio House Bill 178, better known as the CROWN Act, removed from the Ohio House of Representatives Civil Justice Committee on Tuesday, 9 to 3 votes. Republican state representatives Gary Click, Al Cutrona and Brian Stewart voted against the bill.
Reps. Juanita Brent, R-Cleveland, and Jamie Callender, R-Concord, introduced the CROWN Act last year, which stands for Creating a Respectful and Inclusive World for Natural Hair. This is the third consecutive General Assembly in which Brent has introduced CROWN Act legislation, but this is the first time it has been passed out of committee.
HB 178 would make discrimination illegal against hair texture and protective styles such as braids, curls and twists in accordance with the Ohio Civil Rights Act. Bill It would also allow a person who claims that a school discriminated against him or her on the basis of race-related characteristics to bring a lawsuit in any court of competent jurisdiction.
The bipartisan bill originally covered private schools, but an amendment to the bill adopted at Tuesday’s meeting removed these words from the legal act.
“We have discussed these amendments carefully with Rep. Callender and Rep. Brent, and they are both very supportive,” said Civil Justice Chairman Brett Hillyer, R-Uhrichsville.
But Brent has had this before in her sponsor testimony last summer, she highlighted two separate examples from private schools in Ohio to show the need for the bill.
“In 2020, six-year-old Aston Johnson had to leave Zion Temple Christian Academy in Cincinnati because of his dreadlocks,” she wrote in her testimony. “His natural hairstyle was not allowed at their school. In 2017, fourteen-year-old Malachi Wattley was expelled from Central Catholic High School in Toledo because his dreadlocks were not allowed at their school. Our children should never experience discrimination because of what they look like or who they are.”
The bill received overwhelming testimony from supporters, including from the Cleveland NAACP, Columbus City Councilmember Shayla Favor and the East Cleveland School District, among others.
Only Kevin Chimp, on behalf of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, provided opposing testimony, writing that it “increases employers’ potential civil liability, limits hiring at its discretion, and limits an employer’s ability to set its own workplace policies designed to maintain the health of customers and employees.” “
CROWN Scientific Research
According to a CROWN Act 2021 study. 86% of these children reported experiencing hair discrimination by the age of 12.
Black women’s hair is 2.5 times more likely to appear unprofessional and, among other things,more than 20% of black women aged 25-34 said they were sent home from work because of their hair, survey finds CROWN 2023 Workplace Research Survey.
Twenty-three states have already passed this law CROWN Act from last summerAccording to Society for Human Resource Management. Several cities in Ohio – including Columbus, Cleveland Heights, Akron and Cincinnati – have already implemented the CROWN Act at the local level.
In 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the federal CROWN Act, but it never came to a vote in the Senate.
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