The CROWN Act was created by the CROWN Coalition, founded in 2019 by Dove, the National Urban League and other groups. California became the first state to pass it when Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 188 in July 2019. New York followed days later. By 2025, about 30 states had passed a version, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
State CROWN laws work by clarifying that race discrimination includes discrimination based on traits historically associated with race, including hair. That closes the gap courts left open when they ruled that hair was a changeable choice rather than a racial trait.
A federal version has stalled. The House of Representatives passed the CROWN Act in 2020 and again in March 2022, but it did not pass the Senate. It has been reintroduced since. The laws also have limits: Texas passed a CROWN Act in 2023, yet a school district there kept disciplining a Black student over the length of his locs, arguing length was not covered. Enforcement depends on how courts read each statute.