photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Lawrence City Commissioner Amber Sellers, is pictured on Aug. 14, 2023, at an event advocating for the passage of the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act.

Several years ago, Byron Myrick made the cut for a managerial position at a Lawrence restaurant, although there was one major condition that came with his hiring: He had to cut his locs.

Myrick did, but he always thought it was wrong that he had to choose his locs or a paycheck.

On Tuesday, city commissioners will consider passing an ordinance that would make Lawrence the first city in the state to declare such a hiring mandate illegal.

“At that time, I was five years in with the locs, and in my opinion, they were beautiful,” Myrick said on Monday. “I was not a messy hair guy. That is not my style. And it happened. When I think back about it, was I disappointed? Yes. But I made a choice at that time, and it was more about the well-being of my family.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Byron Myrick, is pictured on Aug. 14, 2023, at an event advocating for the passage of the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act.

A group of supporters of the CROWN Act — Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair — gathered Monday at the Hidden Jewel Salon, 1246 Haskell Ave., to urge passage of the city ordinance on Tuesday.

“We get to be who we are,” Janine Colter, owner of the salon and an advocate of the act, said of the ordinance’s importance.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Hidden Jewel Salon owner Janine Colter, is pictured on Aug. 14, 2023, at an event advocating for the passage of the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act.

The ordinance would bar employers, landlords, shopkeepers and other types of professionals from making hiring decisions, rental decisions or public access decisions based on someone’s hairstyle. If an employer, for instance, denied someone a job based on their hairstyle, the decision would be an illegal form of racial discrimination, under the proposed ordinance.

People who feel they have been discriminated against due to their hairstyles could file a complaint with the city’s Human Relations Commission, which is the quasi-judicial body that acts upon other discrimination-oriented complaints, such as discrimination on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

The proposed ordinance gives several examples of “protective hairstyles,” including “braids, afros, bantu knots, cornrows, curls, locs, twists, or hair that is tightly coiled or tightly curled.”

The ordinance notes that Black people and Native Americans often have deep cultural connections with their hairstyles, but historically have faced pressure to alter their hairstyles to conform with hairstyles worn by majority populations.

Sometimes the decision to comply came with a physical price. Some participants in Monday’s event pointed to scars from where they had suffered chemical burns from trying to straighten their hair.

Often, though, the impacts were emotional. City Commissioner Amber Sellers, the first Black women elected to the commission, remembered coming out of a swimming pool at 6 years old with her large, full “poof” of natural hair. A young girl walked by and remarked to her mother that Sellers’ hair looked like the hair of Joy, the family’s dog.

“Her mom said, ‘It sure does,'” Sellers recalled.

“How do you process that as a kid that someone thinks you look like a dog?” Sellers said. “What kind of trauma can that continue to build?”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Michele Watley, founder of Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, is pictured on Aug. 14, 2023, at an event advocating for the passage of the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act.

Supporters of the CROWN Act have tried unsuccessfully to get Kansas legislators to pass a statewide version of the bill, which is on the books in 22 other states. Michele Watley, founder Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, an advocacy group for Black women, said legislators gave the bill some consideration last session, and she is hopeful it will win approval next year.

In the meantime, though, she is asking cities to do what the “Statehouse doesn’t have the political will to do.” Lawrence would become the first city in the state to pass the act, but Watley’s organization is in discussions with leaders in Kansas City, Kansas, Topeka, Wichita and other communities, she said.

At the state level, some business groups have opposed the legislation over fears that it would create new liability for businesses whenever they provide a directive related to an employee’s hair. But Watley said the legislation — including the ordinance in Lawrence — is written in a way to give businesses the ability to comply with other safety and workplace regulations. For example, she said businesses could still direct an employee to put their hair up so that it does not become entangled in a piece of equipment.

The Lawrence ordinance wouldn’t cover all people or be applicable to all organizations. Students are a major population excluded from the local ordinance. Students at schools or universities couldn’t use the local ordinance to challenge school policies related to hair. Watley said matters related to discrimination in educational institutions have to be addressed through state law, rather than local city ordinances.

City commissioners will meet at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall to consider the CROWN Act ordinance. In other business, the commission will:

• Consider adopting Ordinance No. 9996 banning single-use disposable plastic bags on second reading.

The City Commission passed the ordinance on a 3-2 vote, with commissioners Brad Finkeldei and Amber Sellers opposed, at last week’s meeting. That approval will be made official this week if commissioners vote to approve the final version of the ordinance, which is appearing on the meeting’s consent agenda.

• Consider a pair of requests related to a project planned for a 1.73-acre property at 1717 Research Park Drive.

The project, which proposes developing 14 single-dwelling residential lots is seeking new zoning and approval of a preliminary development plan. The property currently is zoned for office and business park type of uses, but hasn’t been developed.

• Receive an update on efforts to redevelop city-owned parking lots in downtown Lawrence and provide direction on next steps.

Per the agenda for this week’s meeting, city staff members have been reviewing the feasibility of redeveloping a number of available downtown lots and, after narrowing the field, are recommending four of them for consideration. The lots are located at 711 New Hampshire St., 836 Vermont St., 825 New Hampshire St. and 1020 Vermont St.

Staff has also identified potential redevelopment goals for those lots, according to the agenda. One goal, for example, is to leverage public incentives and other assistance to incorporate public benefits — like affordable housing, a grocery store addition or a permanent home for Lawrence’s downtown farmers’ market — into development.

— Staff reporter Austin Hornbostel contributed to this report.