(Nov 20, 2025) Rep. Joanna E. McClinton
HARRISBURG, Nov. 20 – Speaker of the PA House Joanna McClinton, D-Phila./Delaware, is celebrating the state Senate’s passage of the CROWN Act, a landmark piece of anti-discrimination legislation that she has championed since 2019. “Like many Black women, I have felt pressured to wear my hair a certain way to meet someone else’s expectations,” said McClinton. “It isn’t fair, and it isn’t right. Now, when the CROWN Act becomes law, hair discrimination will be against the law in Pennsylvania.” The bill, which amends the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to prohibit discrimination based on a person's hair type, hair texture, or hairstyle, now awaits Gov. Josh Shapiro’s signature. The bill’s other lead sponsor, state Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes, D-Allegheny, said, “The CROWN Act has been a longtime fight toward the overall goal of ending this insidious discrimination in our commonwealth that has impacted the lives and livelihoods of students, workers, and Pennsylvania residents simply because of how their hair grows out of their head.” Passing the CROWN Act has become a movement across the country. More than two dozen states — including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee — as well as cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, have already enacted the law. To build support in Pennsylvania, the lawmakers established the “PA Read more