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State House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) and Pennsylvania State Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes (D-Pittsburgh) on Sunday celebrated last week’s signing of the CROWN Act, a law that bans discrimination based on hair texture and protects hairstyles in workplaces, schools and public accommodations.
They joined Jasmine Sessoms, chief executive officer of Firm 1968, to discuss how passage came after years of organizing, coalition building and personal testimony from Black women who have experienced bias in professional and educational spaces.
McClinton introduced an early version of the bill in 2019, inspired by a detailed conversation with national CROWN Act advocate Adjoa B. Asamoah. She said the issue resonated instantly.
“I just knew my own experience, how many times I made efforts about how I was showing up in my professional world,” McClinton said. She recalled worrying as a law student about keeping the same hairstyle so employers would “remember me” and not dismiss her. She added that norms around appearance and implicit bias have shaped the careers of Black professionals for decades.
Mayes, who became the prime sponsor of the bill in 2023, only months into her first term, said she did not expect her first bill to become law. She called the moment “powerful and transformative” and credited McClinton for trusting her with a measure that touches the daily lives of Black Pennsylvanians.
“Two and a half years of my three years in office has been spent working and fighting and scratching and organizing and strategizing and battling to make this real and [end] hair discrimination as the experience of Black people in our commonwealth,” she said.
The final votes reflected rare, broad agreement in a deeply divided political climate in Harrisburg. The Senate passed the bill 44 to 3, and the House passed it 194 to 8.
“What more could we ask for?” Mayes said.