New Orleans City Council introduces the CROWN Act to protect our Nubian Queens

Unfortunately, the Act does not address the blatant discrimination that gingers have endured for generations.

NOLA

Thousands of Black women in New Orleans and around Louisiana have similar stories, Weeks said Tuesday after she appeared before a City Council committee and requested that members approve a local version of what's know as the CROWN Act, a measure banning discrimination against hair styles commonly worn by members of a particular race.

The ordinance, approved unanimously in the Community Development Committee, was modeled on the federal legislation, fully labeled as the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act. The bill passed the U.S. House in September.

If approved by the full council, New Orleans would become one of only a few cities in the country to adopt a local version of the measure, which has yet to be voted on by the U.S. Senate. Seven U.S. states have adopted the law.

"Woolly," curly or kinky textures were declared by jurists early in American history as a marker of blackness, while straight hair was seen as a marker of whiteness, said Greene, a legal expert who supports the federal CROWN Act.

Black hair was regulated in Louisiana by Governor Esteban Miro in 1786, who ordered women of African descent to cover or wrap their hair with cloth "tignons" to signify their status as enslaved people, Greene added.

Even today, Black women, men and children face discrimination for either wearing their natural hair in long Afros, using wigs or extensions, wearing braids, dreadlocks, Bantu twists or other cultural styles.

City Councilmember Helena Moreno, who introduced the ordinance, said some Black women who straighten their hair have felt so pressured to appear "professional" in work or other settings that they refuse to go to the gym if it means sweating out their hair style.

"We must acknowledge that what society has deemed a 'professional' excludes black individuals from professional and social environments. And this of course, we must work to change," Moreno said.

Councilmembers Cyndi Nguyen, Jay Banks and Kristin Gisleson Palmer also endorsed the policy Tuesday, calling it a step toward rectifying some of the ills Black people are faced with.