Noted Blacks Give Youths a Pep Talk

Prominent African Americans joined 300 students from the public high schools of southern Los Angeles on Tuesday in a seminar that celebrated Black History Month and role models for young people.

“We’re trying to make visible that which has been invisible,” said Donald Ware, a Culver City-based cardiologist who organized the seminar. “The successes.”

Ware founded Youth Empowered for Survival a year ago to help young people meet successful African Americans, from lawyers and doctors to politicians and television stars.

Students with grade averages from A to C attended from Crenshaw, Dorsey, Fremont, Jordan, Locke, Los Angeles, Manual Arts, Jefferson and Washington high schools.

The seminar at Loyola Marymount University featured a teleconference with former Gen. Colin Powell.

Powell--calling from San Diego before attending an 85th birthday tribute to former President Ronald Reagan in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night--stressed the importance of getting a high school diploma and the dangers of drugs.

“You’re going nowhere, nowhere, unless you finish high school,” he told the youngsters. “It’s the last time you’ll get anything so valuable for free. Stay in school and stay away from drugs. . . . They are stupid. They destroy the body and sound mind that God and our parents have given us.”

Powell recalled that as an Army lieutenant he was told by one of his superiors that he was “one of the best black lieutenants” the officer had ever met. Powell said he thought to himself, “I want to be the best lieutenant, not just the best black lieutenant.”

Asked by one student if there was a possibility he would run for president in the future, after deciding against it last year, Powell said: “I’ve only made a decision for 1996.”

Powell chose not to mount an anticipated Republican Party campaign, saying he wanted to serve the public in other ways. He is on the board of trustees for Howard University in Washington and working with the United Negro College Fund.

After the teleconference, students heard from local African American officials, including Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, Los Angeles school board member Barbara Boudreaux and P. Anthony Thomas, the Crenshaw-area representative for Mayor Richard Riordan.

Much to the delight of the students, actress Tisha Campbell of the television show “Martin” also made an appearance.

“No matter what you want to do,” Campbell said, “you have to pick up those books.”

After the remarks, the students were split into groups in which they met with professionals in fields including accounting, education, space technology, public service, pediatrics and mortuary science.

“We want to let them [the students] know that there are many, many successful people,” Ware said. “I believe that it’s a necessity.”