Nina Simone's Feeling Good: Celebrating Black Natural Hair

Everyone deserves to feel good – and feel confident in their beauty. But sadly, this isn’t the case for everyone. Black women are 80% more likely to change their natural hair to meet social norms. This has to stop. To expand our work towards eradicating race-based hair discrimination with the CROWN Coalition and the CROWN Act, we’ve joined forces with Verve Records, the Estate of Nina Simone and 2020 BET Award-winning music video director Sara Lacombe. Our shared vision was to create the first-ever music video for Nina Simone’s iconic 1965 anthem “Feeling Good”, to celebrate Black joy, empowerment and boundless self-expression.

In celebration of Black Music Appreciation Month – and ahead of our annual CROWN Day celebrations, celebrating all natural hair (July 3rd) – we’re elevating Black stories and shining a light on the legendary musician and activist, Nina Simone, and her legacy. The music video follows four generations of Black women living their truth and finding self-love through the beauty of Black natural hair – to the tune of the Nina Simone song we all know and love.

Why? Because we should never have to hide or change ourselves to fit somebody else’s ideal. Embracing natural hair builds confidence – and the next generation deserves to grow up feeling empowered by their beauty. Natural hair discrimination still exists. Narrow beauty standards and societal bias unfairly judge and discriminate against Black people based on their hair texture and protective styles. This means that Black women are 1.5x more likely to be sent home from work. Changing natural hair to adhere to social norms or to fit a ‘professional’ office setting is unacceptable and must change.

Fueled by these findings, along with countless stories and experiences of hair discrimination by the Black community, we co-founded The CROWN Coalition in 2019 to advocate for the passing of The CROWN Act. This legislation demands protection against race-based hair discrimination in the workplace and in schools based on hair texture and protective styles. Together with National Urban League, Color of Change and the Western Center on Law and Poverty, we’re committed to progressing The CROWN Act until hair discrimination is illegal in all 50 states.

So far, the CROWN Act has been signed into law in 12 US states, but that’s not enough. We need your help in continuing to raise awareness of race-based hair discrimination. Let’s pass the CROWN in all 38 remaining states. You can join us by:

Signing the petition to pass the CROWN in all US states – and sharing it with everyone you know
Writing a letter or email to your senator or state legislator using this template
Celebrating CROWN Day – with events that engage and uplift the Black community, while celebrating natural and protective hairstyles without fear of judgement or consequence

Let’s help end race-based hair discrimination once and for all.