On November 14, 2022 Texas State Representative Rhetta Bowers, D-Garland,reintroduced the Crown Act legislation for the 2023 Texas Legislative Session. The Texas CROWN Act, which stands for Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, will ban discrimination based on hair textures and styles commonly associated with race. The legislation is now House Bill (HB) 567. 

This legislation has become increasingly necessary as more and more stories of discrimination against students in Texas schools for wearing their natural hair have been reported in the news. Most recently, DeAndre Arnold, a black Mont Belvieu student was suspended last month because of his dreadlocks. The school told him he couldn’t walk at his high school graduation unless he cut them. Late in 2019, four-year-old Michael Trimble was forced out of a Head Start program in the Tatum Independent School District for wearing his natural hair.

In August of this year, Massachusetts became the 18th state to pass and make the CROWN Act law. Massachusetts joins California (2019), New York (2019), New Jersey (2019), Virginia (2020), Colorado (2020), Washington (2020), Maryland (2020), Connecticut (2021), Delaware (2021), New Mexico (2021), Nebraska (2021), Nevada (2021), Oregon (2021), Illinois (2021), Maine (2022), Tennessee (2022), Louisiana (2022), as states that have passed CROWN Act legislation protecting Black and Brown people from hair discrimination in school and the workplace.

The Crown Act is a national campaign led by the Crown Coalition. The Crown Coalition is made up of founding members Dove, National Urban League, Color of Change and the Western Center on Law and Poverty. 

Please join us in signing this petition calling on the Governor and Members of the Texas State Legislature to pass and sign into law the Crown Act during the 2023 Legislative Session.