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On Juneteenth: Reflections on African Descendants' Freedom, Hair, and the Law

Mary L. Smith, Robin Runge, Tyeesha Dixon, Chelsie Green, Torri Jacobus, Patricia Okonta, Cary Martin Shelby, D. Wendy Greene, and Elizabeth Paige White

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.

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