Juneteenth commemorates the issuance of the emancipation proclamation for enslaved African descendants in Texas on June 19, 1865. In celebration of Juneteenth — now a federal holiday — the African American Affairs Committee of the ABA Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice host a dynamic webinar exploring the significance of hair to African descendants’ historic and contemporary quests for freedom, justice, equity, and full recognition of personhood within American law and society. Panelists also discuss civil rights legislation, litigation, and policy aimed at redressing race-based natural hair discrimination, infringements upon freedom of expression, the harms of chemical relaxers, alongside contemplating the role of law and corporations in both perpetuating and remediating these harms disproportionately endured by African descendants.
Resources
- PowerPoint Presentation
- Natural Hair Discrimination FAQ
- Black Hair Belongs Educational Resource
- Arnold v. BHISD Complaint
- Arnold v. BHISD Preliminary Injunction Opinion
- #FreeTheHair website
- Racism as a Threat to Financial Stability, 118 Nw. U. L. Rev. 757 (Nov. 2023) | By Cary Martin Shelby
- Racism and Systemic Risk, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation (May 11, 2023) | By Cary Martin Shelby
- Profiting From Our Pain: Privileged Access to Social Impact Investing, 109 Cal. L. Rev. 1261 (August 2021) | By Cary Martin Shelby
- PBS News Hour, How Hair Discrimination Impacts Black Americans in Their Personal Lives and the Workplace
- BBC segment, The Tangled History of Black Hair Discrimination in the US
- Law 360 Glass Ceiling report, “Wearing Natural Hair in Big Law"
- “The CROWN Act & Transforming the Rules of Professionalism around Black Hair” by Natalie Runyon for Thomson Reuters
- John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” segment on Natural Hair Discrimination (beware of expletives)
- Chemical hair straighteners linked to higher risk of uterine cancer for Black women, study shows, NBC BLK interview with Char Adams
- Washington Post article on the significance of Justice Brown Jackson’s locs
- ABA Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice Chair Chat on The CROWN Act
- D. Wendy Greene, #FREETHEHAIR: How Black Hair is Transforming State and Local Civil Rights Legislation, 22 Nev. L. J. 1117 (2022)
- D. Wendy Greene, Splitting Hairs: The 11th Circuit’s Take on Workplace Bans against Black Women’s Natural Hair in EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions, 71 Miami L. Rev. 987 (2017)
- D. Wendy Greene, Title VII: What's Hair (and Other Race-based Characteristics) Got to Do With It? 79 U. Colo. L. Rev. 1355 (2008)
- D. Wendy Greene, A Multidimensional Analysis of What Not to Wear in the Workplace: Hijabs and Natural Hair, 8 FIU L. REV. 333 (2013)
- D. Wendy Greene, Black Women Can’t Have Blonde Hair…in the Workplace, 14 J. Gender Race & Just. 405 (2011)