Durham schools celebrate natural hair, student diversity with CROWN Act Week
Among the many unifiers in the Black community, one remains consistent throughout generations: hair.
From the creation of relaxers to the Jheri curl, to Afros and the natural hair movement, the evolution of hair in the Black community has been a topic many local school leaders say requires education and meaningful conversation.
This week, Durham Public Schools is acknowledging the diversity, beauty, and culture of Black hair with a week-long celebration of the CROWN Act, a law prohibiting discrimination based on hair texture and style.
From Feb. 24 to Feb. 28, CROWN Act Spirit Week in Durham schools is celebrated with events and a hair-products donation drive that encourages students, staff and community members to wear their hair however they want.
CROWN stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. Each themed day celebrates an aspect of Black hair expression and a range of styles like locs, braids, twists, hair color and Afros.
“The goal is to really amplify the diversity and the expansiveness of the diverse cultures in DPS, specifically when it comes to Black women and Black girls,” said Iwinosa Idahor, a coordinator for the school system’s Office of Equity Affairs. “We really wanted to create a space where we also demystify what it means to wear your hair authentically and that there is no one way to be and show up.”
This year’s celebration during Black History Month also comes amid revocations of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at colleges and universities. Durham school leaders say they want CROWN Act week and other cultural celebrations to continue to help students thrive in and out of the classroom.
Student self-expression
In recent years, the controversy over natural hairstyles has made national headlines.
In 2020, Duke University professor Ashleigh Shelby Rosette co-wrote a study that found Black women with natural hairstyles were perceived as less professional. A 2023 Dove study found that Black women between 25 and 34 were 20% more likely to be sent home from work because of their hair.
In 2021, a Hillside High School softball player had to cut beads from her braids in order to continue a game. Two years later in Texas, a Black student got two weeks of in-school suspension for wearing twisted locs to school.
The CROWN Act was adopted into law in several states over the past five years with the first being passed in California in 2019. Local governments in Wake, Orange, Mecklenburg and Durham have adopted policies based on it.
The law took root in Durham in 2021 when the City Council added protections for natural hair and the Board of Education passed the DPS CROWN Act Resolution. Jovonia Lewis, the board’s former vice chair, helped lead those efforts.
“When I learned of the CROWN Act, it was a natural pathway to the goal I had set to prepare students for unconditional acceptance, beginning [with] their healthy identity development without the influences of arbitrary standards of beauty,” Lewis wrote in a letter.
Millicent Rogers, the chair of the DPS Board of Education, sports pink streaks in her crochet braids hairstyle and previously dyed her hair pink.
“Your competency is not based on your looks,” Rogers said. “We want them to know that whatever career path they take, they can show up as their authentic self. They can show up bald, they can show up gray, they can show up pink. They can show up with an Afro, they can show up with a relaxer. All of that is professional and accepted.”
Rogers recalls getting criticism of her pink hair when she was elected school board chair last March.
“Black people and white people alike did not like that my hair was all pink and felt like it should be more professional, more presenting,” she said. Rogers said she made changes, but she didn’t feel like her true self.
The current rollbacks of DEI programs were a challenge for local schools, she said, so they had to “be creative.”
“People need to see that the leaders here are supportive of the values that we have held for generations, that we are still committed to taking care of the people and being culturally responsive to what’s going on in our community,” Rogers said.
Hair products donation drive
After Spirit Week ends on Friday, Idahor said there are still ways for the Durham community to celebrate.
From now until March 4, the school system is collecting natural hair products like shampoo, conditioner, combs, brushes and styling items. Donations can be dropped off at each school.
“This is not a conversation that ends at the end of the week. We hope that this helps push forward the conversation even more as to why it’s important to create these types of spaces,” Idahor said. “What you do for one subgroup essentially benefits all. I hope this shifts our thinking around that too.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 10:06 AM.