'It made me feel low': Black students urge passage of Crown Act to end hair discrimination
Categories: US Education News
Diamond Campbell, a powerlifter at Bruce High School in Mississippi, was almost disqualified from the state championship April 1.But it wasn't because of her form. It was because of her hair. "I remember looking back, and on the board, it'll be green or red. If it's green, you know, you got it. You can go on and do the next weight," Campbell, 16, said in a recent interview, recalling the moment she stepped off the platform after completing her first lift. "So I looked at the board, and it was red. I was confused." A judge informed one of her coaches that Campbell would need to remove the beads securing the ends of her braids in order to stay in the competition. A viral photo of some of Campbell's teammates and competitors frantically helping her remove the beads has been shared on Facebook more than 35,000 times, with many people remarking it was an "amazing" and "awesome" display of good sportsmanship. But Campbell; her mother, Melody; and a host of others said they see something different when they look at the image: the results of hair discrimination. In interviews , the parents of two children singled out over their natural hairstyles or textures said their experiences highlight the necessity of the Crown Act, which would ban hair discrimination in workplaces, schools and other contexts. The name "Crown" stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. The bill passed the House in March, with a vote of 235-189 mostly along party lines, but it has a murky future in the evenly divided Senate. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill into law.The act would allow Black people and others to wear their hair how they want without fear of being punished or targeted. More than a dozen states — including California, New Jersey and New York — have passed versions of the bill.Campbell's experience has drawn comparisons to a December 2018 incident in which Andrew Johnson, a Black varsity high school wrestler in New Jersey with dreadlocks, was forced to choose between cutting his hair or forfeiting his match. Johnson, then 16, went on to win the match. His experience sparked a state civil rights probe.She said the bill would amend civil rights laws to extend the definition of illegal discrimination to include natural hair or hairstyles that people wear to communicate or emulate the African or Black culture, such as Afros, braids, Bantu knots, locs and twists.