{"id":50003,"date":"2025-12-02T12:34:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T12:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/50003\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T12:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T12:34:06","slug":"pennsylvania-outlaws-discrimination-based-on-hair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/50003\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania outlaws discrimination based on hair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>State House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) and Pennsylvania State Rep. La\u2019Tasha D. Mayes (D-Pittsburgh) on Sunday celebrated last week\u2019s signing of the CROWN Act, a law that bans discrimination based on hair texture and protects hairstyles in workplaces, schools and public accommodations.\n<\/p>\n<p>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.\n<\/p>\n<p>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.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just knew my own experience, how many times I made efforts about how I was showing up in my professional world,\u201d McClinton said. She recalled worrying as a law student about keeping the same hairstyle so employers would \u201cremember me\u201d and not dismiss her. She added that norms around appearance and implicit bias have shaped the careers of Black professionals for decades.\n<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cpowerful and transformative\u201d and credited McClinton for trusting her with a measure that touches the daily lives of Black Pennsylvanians.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo 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,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n<p>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.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat more could we ask for?\u201d Mayes said.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23830,24063,28,30,29,7256],"class_list":["post-50003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-crown-act","tag-hair-discrimination","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}