Lewisburg City Council seeks to protect its residents from discrimination with a new ordinance.
Ordinance 291 is a descendent and successor to the proposed Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, or Crown, Act introduced to the West Virginia Legislature this year. Lewisburg Mayor Beverly White outlined why council took on the ordinance.
“The goal of the ordinance is to make sure no one can be fired or not hired because of the texture of their hair or how they wear it,” White said. “That has been the case for people throughout this state and throughout this country.
The bill did not leave committee, leaving an opening for municipalities to take the lead. White cited the freedoms of Americans to determine their own path as a prime reason for the ordinance.
“Where are their freedoms to wear their hair the way they wish or be who they are? I just don’t get that. … Your hair is not your brain. It doesn’t define your intelligence, or your willingness to work, or what you bring to the table in an organization. You won’t know that if you can’t get past their hair, whether it’s locks or twists or afros, even if it’s straight. A lot of African American women have made sure their hair was straight to fit in. Why is that fair when you don’t ask any white female to wear their hair a certain way? … I really don’t understand why someone feels like they can tell you how you can wear your hair or that they won’t hire you or they’ll fire you – this ordinance protects that from happening.”
White and Councilmember Arron Seams both pointed to the West Virginia Legislature not passing the Crown Act as a prime reason it’s been considered at the city level.
“I see so many people with different hairstyles and different textures,” White said. “Councilmember Seams and I talked and I realized that this is not just for now. This is for the future. We have to protect people that will be coming to the city. How do we make sure they feel safe here and that we are totally inclusive, head to toe.”
“Delegate Walker introduced it and really championed it and it did not get voted out of committee,” said Seams. “I think it was such an important opportunity for our legislators and Charleston missed out on it. It’s so basic and, in a lot of ways, it can be seen as symbolic. There aren’t really that many issues there, but there was a student, Matthew Moore in Beckley, that felt pressured to cut his hair and change his appearance based on some arbitrary preference of an authority figure. That’s not what West Virginia is. This is a place where Mountaineers are always free, you know? We stick it to authority when we have to and it seems like such an easy way to provide simple protection that doesn’t take away anything, except maybe a little bit of ignorance, but we could all stand to lose a little of that.”
Lewisburg has previously served as a model for cities and towns in West Virginia for protecting minority populations, such as the 2016 passage of an LGBTQIA+ protection ordinance. In this case, it’s just one of the first.
The Crown Act was brought to Beckley in March by Danielle Stewart, a member of the Beckley Human Rights Commission, who explained 25% of Beckley residents could be directly affected by the lack of a current ordinance. Soon after Stewart’s proposal, common council members and city officials drafted the Beckley Crown Ordinance, which passed on May 11.
No reports of this type of discrimination have come to the city to spark the ordinance, White explained. However, often people affected by hair discrimination find themselves on an uncertain legal footing, leading to them often not get work or leave jobs without any recourse. This means that the actual rate of this discrimination happening is hard to track with typical job statistics.
Even with no reported incidents, White emphasized that having the ordinance in place, just in case, was worth its passage. Lewisburg’s City Council, voting unanimously to pass it, agreed. No public comment was made against its passage.
“The more we can do to make people feel included, the more inclusive, the better for the community,” White said. “Our children need to feel that they are loved, respected, and cared for. When we have ordinances in place to protect them, I feel good about that. I don’t want anyone to ever be in this city and not feel protected, cared for, loved, and protected. That’s what Lewisburg is.”
As of June 15, City Code now reads:
“Discriminate or discrimination means to exclude from, or fail or refuse to extend to, a person equal opportunities because of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, blindness, disability, familial status, or sexual orientation, and gender identity and includes ‘to separate’ or ‘segregate.’ For purposes of this ordinance, discrimination based on race includes, but is not limited to, discrimination based on hair textures and protective hairstyles historically associated with a particular race; and the term ‘protective hairstyles’ includes but is not limited to, hairstyles such as braids, five locks and twists.”
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