By Ashley Johnson / Broadcast version by Mary Schuermann Kuhlman reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When Kent State University junior Tayjua Hines was in Catholic elementary school, she was often a target of discrimination because of her hair.

"Around 8th grade, I started wearing my hair out," said Hines, now the president of Kent State University's Black United Students. "By then, my mom had stopped doing my hair, so it was really just me doing my hair myself and I had it in an afro. The principal walked up to me and was like, 'Oh, you having a bad hair day? Ha, ha, ha, I am too.' I wasn't having a bad hair day, I just had my afro out."

Like Hines, many African Americans have experienced discrimination in school and work environments based on their natural hairstyles, but one bill is trying to change that.

A campaign founded by Dove and California state senator Holly J. Mitchell on April 22, 2019, pushes for passage of the CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair).

It was begun "to ensure protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles, by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles such as braids, locs, twists and knots in the workplace and public schools," according to the CROWN Act's website.

Under H.R. 5309, those who allege discrimination would be able to file a civil action.

Geraldine Nelson, president of Portage County's NAACP, said there has been a long history of discrimination based on appearance.

"Historically, African Americans or these characteristics that are associated with dark skin, curly hair, you know those socially have been characterized in the negative," Nelson explained. "And so, we're saying that that is unequal treatment."

Within the last few years, there have been many reports of black students, both male and female, being banned from graduation or attending school. The public outcry on the lack of diversity of students' pictures and hairstyles in one Georgia school resulted in the school taking down the pictures.

Seven states, including California, Washington and Colorado have all passed the CROWN Act, but 17 states, such as Oregon, Florida and West Virginia, were not successful passing it.

The CROWN Act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Sep. 21 but is still waiting to be approved by the U.S. Senate.

A local law was passed in Cincinnati this year.

Ohio representatives Juanita Brent, D-Cleveland, and Paula Hicks-Hudson, D-Toledo, both introduced the legislation in the state and understand the national need for the CROWN Act, too.

"It's important that people see themselves in government," Brent contended. "It's important that people know that discrimination is not okay and we're still not to the place where people are being accepted for what they bring to the table, instead of just what they look like when they come to the table."

Brent's career in politics began when she attended a candidates' night and learned that the majority of the candidates wanted to reduce funding for the local community center.

Learning the importance of fighting for her community was a catalyst and helps Brent stay motivated to stay in politics. The personal connection to her community has followed her in bringing forth bills.

"I'm a black woman that lives here in America, who, socially, people tell you that you need to wear your hair straight, you need to look this way," Brent lamented. "And apparently for the most part, even right now, I wear braids and sometimes that's not always considered as the socially accepted appearance for when you're working."

In a 2019 study by Dove, black women were found 30% more likely to receive a formal grooming policy in the workplace.

In that same report, when two images of a woman with a Caucasian background and an African American woman were shown with the same hairstyle, the white woman was rated 25% higher in "job readiness" than the black woman.

The study showed the bias towards African Americans in workplaces and how conformity is introduced.

Nelson said the bill is not only important, but also long overdue. Her organization's Legal Defense and Organizational fund has also been involved in advocating to end hair discrimination for the Black community, including the 2020 incident of a Black Texan teen being banned, for his hairstyle, from walking across a stage.

Chelsea Johnson, a sociologist who studied the natural hair movement at USC, believes this bill is a much needed first step in protecting women of color, according to a Los Angeles Magazine article.

"These stigmas and associations [over a Black person's natural hair] have persisted through slavery, Jim Crow, and to the present day," Johnson observed. "Associations between kinky hair and wildness, craziness, and dirtiness become barriers, especially for women of color working in professional and service sectors here in Los Angeles, across the country, and in many parts of the world with similar histories of colonization and slavery."

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas says it is monitoring protests at college campuses, after almost 60 students protesting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were arrested during a demonstration at the University of Texas in Austin.

State troopers on horses and in riot gear were called in to control the crowd. ACLU Staff Attorney Brian Klosterboer said students planning to participate in peaceful protests should know their rights.

"We encourage everyone to follow the guidance of law enforcement even if they believe that law enforcement might be violating their First Amendment or constitutional rights," said Klosterboer. "It's important that people try to stay safe. Remember, they also have a right to remain silent. You can ask if you are free to leave."

Charges were dropped against the protesters in Austin. Students also held a sit-in at the University of Texas in Dallas and a walkout was held at the University of Texas in Arlington.

Following the arrests of the protesters, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on the social media platform X that the students belonged in jail, and accused them of hate speech.

Klosterboer said when state officials attack free speech, they undermine the core of democracy.

"Texas public universities were specifically designated by Gov. Abbott as traditional public forums," said Klosterboer. "That's where students and others who are engaging in any kind of speech, whether it's passing out Bibles and religious literature or engaging in protests for human rights. That's where free speech is at its apex."

He added that if someone feels their civil liberties have been violated, they can file a complaint on the ACLU website.

The demonstrations in Texas are part of nationwide protests calling for a ceasefire between the Israeli forces and Hamas.





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The Montana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has filed class-action lawsuit challenging a measure barring people from listing a gender on their birth certificate other than the one they were born with.

Montana lawmakers passed Senate Bill 280 in 2021, which requires a court order to change gender on a birth certificate. A state court issued an injunction against the measure but now the state health department has put a total ban on changes to sex designations on birth certificates.

Akilah Deernose, executive director of the ACLU of Montana, called the measure part of a "concerted and unrelenting attack" on the civil rights of people who identify as transgender.

"We've previously sued on the birth certificate issue," Deernose pointed out. "Once again, we're seeing the state implement laws and rules and policies that unfairly target transgender people."

On the other side, some people argued birth certificates contain vital statistics and should be based on the facts at the time of birth. The suit awaits action in state court.

Deernose noted beyond privacy rights, the birth certificate measure has the potential to force a person to declare themselves to be someone other than who they are, based on their declared identity.

"And who they know themselves to be," Deernose observed. "That puts them at risk of discrimination and also forces them to out themselves every time they share those identity documents."

The suit also challenges a motor vehicle department policy forbidding changing sex designations on driver's licenses.

New York state lawmakers have appointed members to the Community Commission on Reparations Remedies, created through legislation Gov. Kathy Hochul signed in 2023.

Its goal is to examine the legacy of slavery and its continuing impacts on black New Yorkers. The commission will develop a report outlining recommendations for addressing these inequities.

Linda J. Mann, co-founder of the African American Redress Network, said there is one problem facing the commission: a lack of funds.

"It is absolutely imperative that funds for these types of task force, because of the amount of research that's going into it, is an imperative," Mann emphasized.

While the bill had plenty of Democratic support, it drew the ire of Republican lawmakers.

Many areas of the country are determining how to redress past disparities Black people face. A recent report found philanthropies have received millions in funds stemming from depriving Black people of opportunities to build wealth similar to those of their white counterparts.

The New York commission will have to present its findings in 2025.

A 2021 Pew Research survey showed three-quarters of Black Americans surveyed support reparations, while only 18% of white Americans support it.

Along with the U.S., countries worldwide are navigating reparations, with Mann noting they are not always compensatory.

"We're not talking about just altering economic wellness," Mann pointed out. "There's other ways in which historical harms have led to disparities in education, in health, in housing."

Beyond New York, California is the only other state to have created a reparations commission. California's reparations task force recommended some compensatory reparations based on factors such as health harms, mass incarceration and over-policing, housing discrimination and the devaluation of African American businesses. But, it wasn't certain how much all of this would amount to.