A festival celebrating Texas' CROWN Act will take place in Hutto on Sunday.
The CROWN Act, short for Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, prohibits race-based hair discrimination in places like schools and the workplace, and went into effect last year.
The festival will take place from 12 to 5 p.m. at the Hutto Family YMCA, and feature a natural hair show, music and dance performances, free haircuts for kids and opportunities for voter registration.
Frofessionals, a Hutto-based non-profit aimed at creating a national directory of Black- and minority-owned hair care businesses, is the organization behind the festival.
April Phillips, an Austin-area social worker, said she was inspired to launch the non-profit after the CROWN Act went into effect in Texas.
"I figured that now, since our hair would be liberated, it was time to unify," Phillips said at the time. "Reclaim the industry, reabsorb these funds back into the pockets of Black-, Indigenous-, people-of-color-owned and operated businesses and then reinvest in the communities that they serve."
Texas is one of several states to pass a version of the CROWN Act. But the law has faced some challenges.
Last month, a federal judge dismissed claims in a lawsuit filed by a Black Texas high school student who alleged that school officials had violated his civil rights by insisting he cut his hair to fit school policy.
Darryl George was first suspended from Barbers Hill High School near Houston last summer — just one day before Texas' CROWN Act went into effect.
School officials claimed George's dreadlocks violated the district's dress code for male students because his hair fell below his eyebrows and earlobes.
As a result, George and his mother sued the school district, some of its employees, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, alleging they failed to enforce the new law.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown dismissed the claims against Abbott, Paxton, and the district and school employees, but upheld George's claim of sex discrimination, writing: "Because the District does not provide any reason for the sex-based distinctions in its dress code, the claim survives this initial stage."
More information about this weekend's festival can be found on the event page.
Copyright 2024 KUT 90.5