Conservatives Help Immigrants Change New Jersey Law

by Matt Katz

Immigrants from West Africa are operating New Jersey businesses in a trade they learned from their mothers and aunts: Hair braiding. But often, because of state regulations that effectively mandate that they attend costly cosmetology schools, they’re doing it illegally, without a license.

So over the last two years, these African women — some new Americans, some undocumented — lobbied legislators in Trenton. They’re now on the verge of watching the legislature change the law to exempt them from the cosmetology requirement.

Most surprisingly, they were guided in this endeavor by the state chapter of Americans For Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group backed by the Koch brothers.

“Those guys came and said, ‘We are going to work you through this,’” said Anita Yeboah, a braider originally from Ghana who works at J&C African Braids in Trenton. “All we can say to them is, God bless them for their time, for all they are doing.”

Erica Jedynak, the state director for Americans For Prosperity, said the plight of these women ts in with the group’s efforts to cut government intrusion into business. Jedynak also noted the importance of aiding women, particularly immigrant women who are often single mothers and the breadwinners for their families.

Hair braiders complained to Jedynak about customers walking out on their bills and then threatening to turn them in for lacking a license if the hair braiders called the cops.

When Yeboah moved to the U.S. two decades ago she opened an African deli in Trenton. But her first child was born with disabilities, and she needed a job that would allow some exibility, so she could go to therapy and doctor appointments. That’s when she decided to fall back on a skill she learned watching her mother and “aunties” braid hair on the front stoops of their homes back in the old country.

“I grew up with it,” she said. “We would sit down there, passing them the comb.”

African-style hair braiding often involves weaving in extensions made of synthetic or human hair. The process can take many hours.

The skill provided Yeboah the income she needed to raise four children, two of whom have disabilities, and save enough money to start a nonprofit organization in Ghana helping disabled kids.