The rules also prohibit boys from wearing “ponytails, ducktails, rat-tails, male bun or puffballs,” language that some parents say specifically targets African-American hairstyles.

But African American hair braiding styles stood — and still stand — as a direct challenge to those outdated norms. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Black is Beautiful movement sparked a renaissance ...

People who wear African American hairstyles, including natural, dreadlocks, twists, cornrows and braids, would be protected from discrimination in schools and at work under a bill proposed by a sta… ...