Litigating Hair Discrimination Claims: Protecting Black Hair in the Workplace

This program, presented by Dana Lossia and Alexis Boyd, will offer an introduction to the history, case law, statutory protections, and legal developments pertaining to hair-based discrimination. We will discuss the history of Black hair discrimination in the United States and the seminal cases in litigating hair discrimination cases. Audiences will learn about new developments in national and state law protections for preventing and prohibiting racially motivated hair-based discrimination.

This program will benefit employment litigators and in-house employment counsel in understanding the laws and legal theories used by plaintiffs to assert discrimination claims based on their hair and race. This program is also suitable for beginners who are interested in how civil rights protections can be expanded to include prohibitions on more discreet forms of race-based discrimination.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the harm that employees face from hair-based discrimination and how it is rooted in illegal racial bias

2. Examine how current statutes and case law can protect employees who face hair-based discrimination and how the law is developing

3. Discuss legal strategies for litigating hair-based discrimination in the workplace