As this city firefighter’s discrimination lawsuit heads to court, he may get help from a new state law protecting Black hairstyles

A Black Philadelphia firefighter headed to court after suing the city for discrimination over his hair may get some help from a recently passed law.

Last November, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the Pennsylvania CROWN Act, reshaping the statewide landscape for such cases. The law, which amends the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, bans discrimination based on hairstyle, texture, or type.

The firefighter’s lawsuit argues that the city broke both the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and the city ordinance by discriminating against him due to his hair. The lawsuit seeks compensation and a change in the fire department’s hair policy. The city declined to comment for this story.

According to one legal expert, the CROWN act’s passage reflects a shifting understanding of how Black hair is viewed in a workplace setting.

“The Pennsylvania CROWN Act makes clear harassment and other acts of discrimination on the basis of characteristics that are historically associated with one’s racial identity, like a Black worker’s locs or skin complexion, constitutes unlawful race discrimination,” said Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law professor D. Wendy Greene, who is not involved in the case.

Similar laws have been passed in 30 states, according to a legal advocacy website. On the local level, a similar rule already was enshrined in the Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance.

The plaintiff, 42-year-old Bariq Fluellen, said he’s always wanted to work in a field where he could help people. His uncle was a firefighter, and he remembers emergency workers arriving at his home after his father died from a heart condition. “I knew these people were here to help,” he said, and he wanted to be like them.

After a stint in college and a couple years working at the now-defunct Manayunk Paperworks to support himself and two children, Fluellen took the civil service test and was hired as a firefighter at age 29.

“I was elated. I knew it could be a career and not just a job for me. I knew that I would be able to sustain my family and myself and have a little extra just because of the opportunity the fire department provides,” Fluellen said.

Fluellen said that as he navigated the stresses of the job, he embraced Rastafarianism, a religion often associated with reggae music, that originated in Jamaica in the 1930s.

To Rastafarians, hair is “a measure of time” and a symbol of one’s connection with a higher power, Fluellen said. And like most Rastafarians, Fluellen began growing out his hair.

But as his hair grew, Fluellen got the attention of some fire department officers who weren’t happy about it.

Fluellen’s lawsuit said he suffered “severe and persistent harassment based on his race” because his locs made it impossible to comply with the fire department’s hair policy. The lawsuit argues that the policy goes against the state and local rules.

The alleged harassment began around 2021 when, at a firefighter’s funeral, a senior captain made a comment about Fluellen’s hair to his supervisor.

His boss threatened to cut his hair, threatened to write him up, and often “singled out and humiliated” Fluellen in the company of other firefighters, the lawsuit states. The harassment caused him humiliation and physical pain due to stress, and prevented him from advancing in his career, the complaint states.

One key question is whether his lengthy locs kept him from wearing his protective gear. Fluellen emphasized that he created videos showing his supervisors that it did not.

Nor did his hair affect his work as a ladderman sometimes tasked with rescuing people trapped in burning buildings, Fluellen said.

“When I put all my gear on, you cannot see skin, hair, or anything else, from head to toe,” Fluellen said.

Fluellen’s attorneys at the Public Interest Law Center first filed the lawsuit last summer, but the case sat for a year with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission before it was moved to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

The CROWN Act, which passed a few months later, was a bonus, said Fluellen’s attorney, Meghan Binford, with the Public Interest Law Center.

“It shows that attitudes are catching up with the law,” Binford said. The city has a deadline to respond to the lawsuit Monday, she said.

“I think that we have a very strong case, because Bariq has shown that this does not affect his ability to do his job.”

For Greene, the case may also be a test for how Pennsylvania courts handle the issue at a time when many federal judges weighing the 1964 Civil Rights Act have supported employers over workers.

“Many federal courts that have decided similar racial discrimination cases under Title VII have not protected Black workers from this pervasive form of racial discrimination but rather have protected employers who perpetuate racial inequality,” Greene said.

In these cases, employers weren’t required to show that rules banning a Black employee’s hair was “actually related to bona fide health and safety concerns, or their ability to perform the job at hand,” Greene said.

In addition, employers weren’t required to show that grooming policies were enforced equally and without racial bias, Greene said. Both of these issues will be essential in this case.

Though it’s been a stressful, Fluellen said that growing out his locs has been an important spiritual experience — and one that has garnered some support from other Black firefighters in the 3,500-person department.

“Especially the women, in particular Black women who wear their hair in cultural hairstyles, like individual braids, have reached out to me, and said they agree with what I’m saying, and we can still do the job,” Fluellen said.