PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Adjoa B. Asamoah refers to herself as a "movement baby."
Born to activist and organizer parents, it’s no surprise that Asamoah's path has led her to become a political strategist and a champion of the CROWN Act, which legally bans race-based hair discrimination.
"My mother was born in the Jim Crow South in North Carolina and my father was born under colonization, in what would later become the Republic of Ghana," she said.
"By the time I was 9, I had the opportunity to visit the birthplace of both parents and witness anti-Blackness in both places. So you're talking about two different countries, two different continents, and in two different hemispheres, essentially, we're dealing with anti-Blackness, which is a global struggle."
The CROWN Act — which stands for "Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair" — has garnered a lot of attention and support from social media in recent years. Asamoah, a Temple University grad, has been behind it from its conception. Studies show that Black people are more likely to experience denial of employment and educational opportunities because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including braids, locs, twists or bantu knots.
"We've seen too many people being passed over for promotions, having offers of employment rescinded, and having negative workplace experiences," Asamoah explained.
"We've seen too many children have negative educational experiences, being told you can not participate in your graduation ceremony because you wore locs. We've seen children be humiliated, have their identity attacked, essentially, on a wrestling mat and forced to make a decision no child should ever have to make and to choose between on the spot — and have your locs cut, or to forfeit the match, with everybody watching and cheering you on," she said, in reference to the 2018 incident at a New Jersey high school that went viral.
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She said the movement has taken more than a decade to gain traction. Still, she's been persistent because it represents a freedom, a civil right moreover, that Black women have been historically denied. The House of Representatives just passed the bill, and so far, she said 16 states or territories have taken the bold step to outlaw race-based hair discrimination.
"Many other states have also introduced this bill and are working its way through the respective legislatures. We're also up to 35 and counting local jurisdictions," she noted.
Asamoah, who served as an advisor for the Biden-Harris campaign, said her activism was inspired by her time in Philadelphia at Temple University.
“I was the vice president of the NAACP, I was the president of my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., on campus, I was the treasurer for the African Student Union," she recalled.
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"I found myself going against my university as an 18-year-old undergraduate student about housing, essentially, and what I viewed as a plan to gentrify the North Philadelphia community, and was very vocal about that, and didn't want any Black people — any people in general — displaced."
Asamoah has enjoyed a successful career in politics and culture for decades. Her advice to others is to recognize their own power and "flex it."
"So many people invest so much time and money trying to convince people that they don't have power," she said, citing voter suppression.
"And that is really because you have it. So actualize, realize your power, and use that power to do good. Leverage where you sit, what you know, who you know, to organize, to move the needle. It doesn't have to be the way I do it. The beautiful thing about progress is it doesn't come in one form."
Learn more about Asamoah and her mission on Bridging Philly.
