Hair Love, the poignant animated short film about a black father learning to style his daughter’s natural hair, won the hearts of Oscar voters and took home the top prize at the 92nd Academy Awards on February 9, 2020. On hand to witness the historic moment was DeAndre Arnold — the Texas student who gained national attention after his high school refused to allow him to walk at graduation unless he cut his dreadlocks. Upon hearing the story, filmmakers Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver, along with producers Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade, invited DeAndre to walk the red carpet at the Oscars as their guest. During his acceptance speech, Cherry said of the film, “Hair Love [was] born out of … wanting to normalize black hair. We have a real chance here to help make hair discrimination illegal through The CROWN Act and get it passed as law in all 50 states for the people like our special guest DeAndre Arnold and many more.”

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