Source: Newsweek

On September 10, 2001, Newsweek reported that Christopher Polk was fired from his FedEx job for refusing to cut his dreadlocks. There is a "Rastafarian belief in the sanctity of dreadlocks - the cords of permanently interlocked strands first worn by African cheifs perhaps 6,000 years ago." Polk, a practicing Rastafarian, explains that "'your hair is your covenant...once you grow your locks, it puts you on a path'...Six other New York-area FedEx employees have lost their jobs because of dreadlocks. They have sued, alleging religious discrimination: the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and New York's attorney general have also charged FedEx with violating religious protections in the Civil Rights Act...Around the country, religion-based claims are pending against police departments and prison authorities, schools and retailers, alleging that rules against knotted locks unfairly single out Rastafarians in particular and African-Americans in general...Rastafarians number about 5,000 nationally."