State Rep. Edmond Jordan (D-Baton Rouge) dresses down Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Jr., for Phillips’ reference to black legislators’ actions entailing blocking hair braiding deregulation being akin to “Apartheid.” Jordan made his commentary at the meeting of the House Commerce Committee of Tuesday, April 22, 2025 as it discussed HB-370, a bill to reduce the requirements to braid hair to: #1) registration, #2) successful passage of a twenty-question sanitation exam, and #3) payment of a one-time $25 registration fee.
Editor’s Note:
Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Jr., is a close friend of Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns, and he opened the first-in-the-nation totally online auction school. Burns has served as an instructor at the school since its inception and continues in that capacity today.
Let us begin by expressing thanks to all of the new YouTube subscribers we’ve obtained since we published our feature on Rep. Rhonda Butler’s attempts to impose a massive fee increase on Louisiana cosmetologists.
There is one thing that one of our new subscribers asked, and that is, “Why are you only planning to do a Republican Wall of Shame for those who vote in favor of Butler’s bill?”
Our new subscriber suggested that we should also publish any Democrat who votes in favor of the fee increase so, “I can know how my Representative voted on the bill.” She indicated sentiments paralleling our own sentiment, which is that the bill should be resoundingly defeated!
Accordingly, we will be more than happy to make it a generic “Wall of Shame” and include both Democrats and Republicans who support Butler’s bill.
At present, Butler’s bill is scheduled for House Floor debate tomorrow, Monday, April 28, 2025. Please bear in mind, however, that historically similar bills have been scheduled for debate only to be “returned to the calendar” and, in several instances, never even placed back on the calendar for debate or placed back only to be removed multiple times and ultimately never even achieve an actual vote on the bill. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow if in fact the bill is debated as presently scheduled.
Meanwhile, it is rare to see a State Representative, in this case State Rep. Edmond Jordan (D-Baton Rouge), who used to represent Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips [who is now represented by State Rep. Venessa LeFleur, D-Baton Rouge)] openly dress down his former constituent, only for Phillips to subsequently be praised for his testimony by House Commerce Committee Chairman Daryl Deshotel (R-Marksville).
Since Phillips’ testimony elicited such a wide range of emotions and observations, let’s present the highlights of his testimony, which also include a short segment of testimony Phillips made in 2018 entailing hair braiding deregulation:
April 22, 2025: Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Jr., testifies in favor of HB-370. [Note: Caption on video above has a typo and extra letter. It should be “divulged.”]
We see no need to write in text what Rev. Phillips said in the video above because he testified on substantive material entailing hair braiding, and we believe he does so in a manner we cannot even hope to try and match!
Now, there is another bill which also focuses on braiding deregulation. That bill is HB-509, which has been sponsored by Rep. Patricia Moore, D-Monroe. Her bill would make it completely optional for obtaining a hair braiding permit and would enable anyone to practice hair braiding without the need for obtaining the permit nor going through the 500 hours presently required to obtain such a permit.
Let’s present highlights of Moore’s bill from the House Commerce Committee testimony also on Tuesday, April 22, 2025:
April 22, 2025: Highlights of Rep. Moore’s HB-509 to make the obtaining of a hair braiding permit optional and permit the practice of hair braiding without the need for any such permit.
Just as Butler’s bill to massively increase the cost of a cosmetology license is, at least at press time today (Sunday, April 27, 2025), scheduled for House Floor debate tomorrow (Monday, April 28, 2025), so too are both Moore and Bayham’s hair braiding deregulation bills.
We will report on the outcome and, as promised above, we most certainly will create a Wall of Shame for all legislators supporting Butler’s fee increase bill.
We appreciate obtaining feedback that says Democrats should also be held accountable for voting for Butler’s bill and the added feedback that such an act should be deemed to be a rewarding of reckless acts by the Board of Cosmetology. We extensively outlined those acts in our last feature.
Where were Rep. Jordan and the black cacus when Ronald Greene was MURDERED. He’s offended??? The bottom line is the bottom line . Cut the competition. Who runs the schools that will benefit the most? Board Members and their friends!!!