The Cultural Politics of Natural Hair: Digital Mobilization and the Making of the CROWN Act Movement

This study examines how the #CROWNAct hashtag operates as a site of digital mobilization and racial justice discourse on Twitter. Originating from the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act, the movement extends anti-discrimination advocacy into online spaces where Black women and allies engage in collective resistance to hair-based bias. Using social network analysis (SNA), the study analyzes a dataset of 209 #CROWNAct tweets collected via DiscoverText and visualized through Gephi to identify patterns of interaction among government officials, corporations, celebrities, and non-celebrity individuals. Findings reveal a multi-nodal network anchored by The CROWN Act’s official account, activist leaders, and public figures. The analysis situates this network within broader traditions of Black feminist digital activism and considers how moments of mediated visibility—like the 2022 Oscars incident—catalyze renewed attention to systemic hair discrimination. Ultimately, the #CROWNAct Twitter network illustrates how affect, policy discourse, and digital culture converge to shape the ongoing struggle for racial and esthetic equity.