NEWHALL - Spreading a message of tolerance and cultural awareness, legendary actor Louis Gossett Jr. spoke to students Monday as the culmination of Black History Month celebrations at culturally diverse Hart High School. Hart students also watched "Windows," an award-winning short film co-starring Gossett as an amputee veteran who finds solace in an unsuspecting friend.
Gossett said the film deals with wars and how different types of conflicts affect people. Tenth-grader Spencer Monhein called the 15-minute film powerful and said he appreciated its message of tolerance - something he feels his school has also been carrying out in the last month. "The school is doing a pretty good job at having us learn about black history.
The month now makes sense to me when before it didn't." Hart was named a Zero Hour school by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations for promoting cultural awareness through positive student activities after some racially fueled confrontations last year on campus. The Emmy- and Oscar-winning Gossett, who
Sporting a black T-shirt marked with the word "Eracism," Gossett explained that his newest project is a nonprofit foundation that is planning to send African-American youths involved in gangs to Africa to learn about their history and culture. "The message is to teach young people that there is no race or religion above any other so that there can be a level playing field," Gossett said. Hart Principal Gary Fuller said that is the message he hopes his students get out of the school's Black History Month activities.
"We are one family," Fuller said. Gossett stressed that while viewing oneself as part of one human race is important, minorities should concentrate on learning their own history - often skipped in history books, television and film. "I call this Operation Catch-up," Gossett said.
"The United States is about to be the cutting-edge diamond of diversity in the world, so we need to have this knowledge of self.
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