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Jordan Winder did not apply to the high school of his choice, because the dreadlocks he’s been growing nearly half his life are not allowed there.

The thick, tightly wound strands of hair that stretch down the length of Jordan’s back do not comply with the grooming policy at St. Augustine High School in New Orleans.

The policy at the private, all-boys Catholic school that Jordan’s father attended doesn’t allow students’ hair to be longer than one inch. It specifically bans dreadlocks, and Jordan refuses to cut them. So instead, he enrolled at a public school that allows him to wear his hair the way he likes it.

“I decided to grow my hair at a young age. Just to stand out, to be different,” said Jordan, 15, who wanted to play the trumpet, trombone and mellophone at St. Augustine, which has a well-respected marching band. “I never really liked having a fade or a bush. I just decided to grow my hair out. I just couldn’t go to school where I wanted. It made me feel pretty disappointed.”

Jordan’s voice has joined the chorus of Black people across the country who are calling for a change to discriminatory policies in schools and workplaces that ban the hairstyles that mark their identities.

The number and volume of these voices are growing in light of incidents such as those involving Andrew Johnson, a New Jersey wrestler who was forced to either cut off his dreadlocks or forfeit a championship match; Clinton Stanley Jr., a Florida boy who was not allowed to start first grade at a private voucher school without cutting his dreadlocks; and DeAndre Arnold, a Texas teen given in-school suspension for refusing to cut his dreadlocks.

The SPLC Action Fund is supporting other organizations in fighting against discrimination based on hair textures and styles that are commonly associated with Black people.

In fact, a growing number of advocacy organizations and lawmakers around the country are pushing for legislation that is broadly called the CROWN Act, short for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. Such laws prohibit discrimination in the workplace, schools, public accommodations and other areas based on the hairstyles worn by some communities of color, including braids, Afros, curls, twists and dreadlocks.

Read more about the movement to prevent racial hair discrimination.

The Editors