IIB 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 2116 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
MARCH 21, 2022 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
AN ACT 
To prohibit discrimination based on an individual’s texture 
or style of hair. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Creating a Respectful 
and Open World for Natural Hair Act of 2022’’ or the 
‘‘CROWN Act of 2022’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS; PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) Throughout United States history, society 
has used (in conjunction with skin color) hair tex-
ture and hairstyle to classify individuals on the basis 
of race. 
(2) Like one’s skin color, one’s hair has served 
as a basis of race and national origin discrimination. 
(3) Racial and national origin discrimination 
can and do occur because of longstanding racial and 
national origin biases and stereotypes associated 
with hair texture and style. 
(4) For example, routinely, people of African 
descent are deprived of educational and employment 
opportunities because they are adorned with natural 
or protective hairstyles in which hair is tightly coiled 
or tightly curled, or worn in locs, cornrows, twists, 
braids, Bantu knots, or Afros. 
(5) Racial and national origin discrimination is 
reflected in school and workplace policies and prac-
tices that bar natural or protective hairstyles com-
monly worn by people of African descent. 
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(6) For example, as recently as 2018, the U.S. 
Armed Forces had grooming policies that barred 
natural or protective hairstyles that servicemembers 
of African descent commonly wear and that de-
scribed these hairstyles as ‘‘unkempt’’. 
(7) The U.S. Army also recognized that prohi-
bitions against natural or protective hairstyles that 
African-American soldiers are commonly adorned 
with are racially discriminatory, harmful, and bear 
no relationship to African-American servicewomen’s 
occupational qualifications and their ability to serve 
and protect the Nation. As of February 2021, the 
U.S. Army removed minimum hair length require-
ments and lifted restrictions on any soldier wearing 
braids, twists, locs, and cornrows in order to pro-
mote inclusivity and accommodate the hair needs of 
soldiers. 
(8) As a type of racial or national origin dis-
crimination, discrimination on the basis of natural 
or protective hairstyles that people of African de-
scent are commonly adorned with violates existing 
Federal law, including provisions of the Civil Rights 
Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.), section 1977 
of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1981), and the 
Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.). How-
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