Lansing, Mich. — Denial of employment or educational opportunities due to discrimination based on natural and protective hairstyles, such as afros, braids or dreadlocks, will be prohibited in Michigan under legislation signed Thursday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The new law, known as the Crown Law, will amend the state’s civil rights law to prohibit discrimination based on hair texture and protective hairstyles in employment, housing, education, and places of public accommodation.
State Sen. Sarah Anthony, who first introduced similar legislation in 2019, said at Thursday’s signing in Lansing that for years she has heard «the stories of men, women and children denied opportunities here in our state.» , due to discrimination by hair.
“Let’s call it what it is: Hair discrimination is nothing more than thinly veiled racial discrimination,” said Anthony, the first black woman to represent Lansing in the state Senate.
While previous attempts to pass the Crown Act in Michigan failed in the Republican-led Legislature, the legislation passed this year with bipartisan support by a 100-7 vote in the state House.
Michigan will become the 23rd state to pass a Crown Law version, according to the governor’s office. He US Chamber Approved a bill to ban hair discrimination last year, but it failed to advance in the US Senate.
Supporters of the law pointed to a 2019 study by Dove that showed that one in five black women who worked in offices or in sales settings said they had to alter their natural hair. The study also found that black students are much more likely to be suspended for dress code or hairstyle violations.
Marian Scott, a student from Jackson, Michigan, joined lawmakers at Thursday’s signing. In 2019, Scott, then 8, was told she couldn’t take school pictures because her red hair extensions violated school policies.
In 2021, a 7-year-old biracial girl in Michigan had her haircut by a school worker without their parents’ permission. The girl’s father, Jimmy Hoffmeyer, filed a $1 million lawsuit against the school district, alleging racial discrimination and ethnic intimidation.
Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II, the state’s first black lieutenant governor, said his own daughter had just braided her hair for the first time yesterday, in a heart design.
“Imagine when you choose how to present and someone tells you it’s wrong,” Gilchrist said. “What does that do to extinguish the imaginative potential of our young people?”
Michigan Democrats have focused on expanding the state’s civil rights law since taking control this year. The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, created in 1976, was amended twice earlier this year to add protections for the LGBTQ community and workers who receive abortions.
Civil rights law prohibits discrimination based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, marital status, and marital status.
Former Republican Rep. Mel Larsen, who helped write the civil rights bill with Democratic Rep. Daisy Elliott in 1976, said earlier this year at a signing that the “original intent, and the intent still, is that all Michigan citizens have the right to be protected by the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act.”