The new law, known as the Crown Act, will amend the state’s civil rights law to ban discrimination based on hair texture and protective hairstyles within employment, housing, education and places of public accommodation.
While previous attempts at passing the Crown Act in Michigan failed in the Republican-led Legislature, the legislation was passed this year with bipartisan support with a 100-7 vote in the state House. Marian Scott, a student from Jackson, Michigan, joined lawmakers at Thursday’s signing. In 2019, Scott, then an 8-year-old, was told that she could not take school pictures because her red hair extensions violated school policies.
“Imagine when you choose how to present and someone tells you that’s wrong,” Gilchrist said. “What does that do to snuff out the imaginative potential of our young people?”