The year was 1970. Beverly Jenkins worked at Blue Cross Mutual Hospital Insurance for approximately three years. According to court records, Jenkins said she had no problems at the company until she started wearing an Afro to work.
Jenkins said she was denied a promotion and told by her supervisor that she could never represent the company with her Afro. She filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against her employer. In the landmark 1976 case Jenkins v. Blue Cross Mutual Hospital Insurance, the court protected Afros under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The law was a victory for Black people in the workplace. Subsequently, federal courts ruled that the law only applied to Afros, not other natural hairstyles like braids, dreadlocks, cornrows or twists. More than 50 years after the landmark case, that could change.
