About the bill
It’s illegal to discriminate explicitly based on race, but what about based on hairstyles frequently associated with racial minorities?
Context
According to a study of 1,000 black and 1,000 white women, black women’s hair is 3.4 times as likely to be perceived as “unprofessional” versus white women’s hair. Black women were also 50% more likely than white women to have been sent home from their workplace because of their hair.
(That study was sponsored in part by Dove, a company which has publicly supported the CROWN Act.)
In June 2019, California became the first state to ban “hair discrimation.” New York followed suit as the second state a month later, in July 2019.
Is a national ban next?
What the legislation does
The CROWN Act would ban discrimination based …
Sponsor and status
116th Congress (2019–2021)
This bill was introduced in a previous session of Congress and was passed by the House on September 21, 2020 but was never passed by the Senate.
Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could have become law by being included in another bill. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills).
63 Cosponsors (63 Democrats)
Position statements
What legislators are saying
“Congresswoman Barbara Lee Applauds the Passage of the CROWN Act to Combat Racial Hair Discrimination”
—
Rep. Barbara Lee [D-CA12]
(Co-sponsor)
on Sep 21, 2020
“Chairman Nadler Applauds House Passage of 10 Judiciary Bills”
—
Rep. Jerrold Nadler [D-NY12]
(Co-sponsor)
on Sep 22, 2020
“My Votes – Week of September 21st”
—
Rep. Cathy Anne McMorris Rodgers [R-WA5]
on Sep 25, 2020
History
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Dec 5, 2019
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Introduced
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. |
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Sep 15, 2020
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Considered by House Committee on the Judiciary
A committee held a hearing or business meeting about the bill.
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Sep 18, 2020
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Text Published
Updated bill text was published as of Preprint (Suspension). |
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Sep 21, 2020
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Passed House (Senate next)
The bill was passed in a vote in the House. It goes to the Senate next. The vote was by voice vote so no record of individual votes was made. |
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Sep 21, 2020
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Reported by House Committee on the Judiciary
A committee issued a report on the bill, which often provides helpful explanatory background on the issue addressed by the bill and the bill's intentions. |
H.R. 5309 (116th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 5309. This is the one from the 116th Congress.
This bill was introduced in the 116th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2019 to Jan 3, 2021. Legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
How to cite this information.
We recommend the following MLA-formatted citation when using the information you see here in academic work:
“H.R. 5309 — 116th Congress: CROWN Act of 2020.” www.GovTrack.us. 2019. April 18, 2024 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr5309>
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Where is this information from?
GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.
