Columbia, SC – Rep. Kambrell Garvin (D-Richland) will file the ‘Crown Act’ to ban racial or ethnic discrimination against facial features, hair textures, hair types, hair styles, and protective hairstyles associated. The legislation would make such discrimination unlawful in matters of housing, school, and employment policy.
The bill states that “the history of our nation is riddled with laws and societal norms that equate ‘blackness,’ and the associated physical traits, for example, dark skin, kinky and curly hair, to a badge of inferiority, sometimes subject to separate and unequal treatment,” and that “this idea also permeated social understanding of professionalism.”
Garvin’s bill continues: “[D]espite the great strides American society and laws have made to reverse the racist ideology that black traits are inferior, hair remains a rampant source of racial discrimination with serious economic and health consequences, especially for black individuals.”
Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter will co-sponsor the bill. The South Carolina House of Representatives will hold prefiling for the 2020 Legislative Session on Wednesday, November 20 and Wednesday, December 11. “I look forward to prefiling this bill and I hope it sparks an important discussion when the House comes back in January,” Garvin said.
###