ST. LOUIS — Right now, Missouri lawmakers are considering whether to incorporate the CROWN Act into state law.
CROWN stands for Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair. The measure prevents discrimination against a person's natural hair texture or style in the workplace or school.
The move to make it state law stalled in the Senate last year. Missouri lawmakers are revisiting it now. Thursday, people gathered in Florissant to say hair doesn't define who you are.
Ivory Hill loves her job serving guests at the Florissant Valley library branch.
"We’re going to pick up a book,” she said interacting with a colleague behind the help desk.
She also loves the freedom she has to wear her hair the way she chooses. Too often she says many women like her have taken other routes in the workplace.
"I went from relaxers to protected hair, the weaves, the sew-ins, the wigs," she said.
All, she said, to feel validated.
"It just seemed people associated my straight hair with beauty."
Her views have changed.
"When you're judging my hair, I think you're judging me and my choices,” Hill said.
It's why she helped organize a Black History Month conversation at the Florissant Valley library Thursday. People came out to celebrate the freedom of expression through hair.
"Today we’re going to take a deep dive into our natural hair journey,” owners of the NanaComb Vision company told the crowd.
It comes as President Joe Biden has expressed his support for making the CROWN Act a national law.
"Sometimes, especially for work, it was like I'm wearing this hair for everyone else,” 31-year-old Briana Isom-Brummer said. She has since ditched the straight look for dreadlocks. "To be authentic to myself, for the love of my hair, that's part of it, for it to be sometimes a little frizzy, a little out of the norm.”
In 2021, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones incorporated the CROWN Act into city law.
Next week, a Missouri House committee will take up the topic.
"It is important for young boys and young girls to be comfortable with themselves and not have somebody pick a part their every piece of who they are," said Rep. Lakeysha Frazier-Bosley who is sponsoring House Bill 326. "It goes to those little boys and girls who don't see themselves in the media. This gives them an opportunity to see that they are safe."
Last year, Illinois incorporated the CROWN Act into state law. Minnesota just approved it.
"I don't really care at this point if people think it’s presentable or not because I love the way that my hair looks and it's perfect and it's always looked professional in my eyes,” Isom-Brummer said.
"Women with natural hair should be celebrated. It should not be a discussion. It's just hair,” Hill added.
Right now, the soap brand Dove has created this online form for you to fill out if you’d like to have your lawmakers consider adopting the CROWN Act into law.