By Shawn Lane, Contributing Writer
Dr. Chadwick Boseman (1976-2020) delivered the commencement address at his Alma Mater of Howard University on May 12, 2018. Unbeknownst to many, Boseman was battling Stage 3 Colon Cancer at the time. He encouraged the graduates to celebrate their life achievements.
“Savor the taste of your triumphs today,” Boseman advised the graduates. “Don’t just swallow the moment whole without digesting what has actually happened here. Look down over what you conquered and appreciate what God has brought you through.”
Boseman had many triumphs of his own in his 43 years of life. As King T’Challa, Boseman delivered the world its first Black Superhero to the big screen in Black Panther. He received an NAACP and Screen Actors Guild Award for his role. But he continued to keep that character going off the screen as he did community work volunteering at Children’s Hospitals. He always knew children of color would look up to him and he needed to keep his character in a positive light.
He was always strategic in his character selections and purposely chose men of influence in Thurgood Marshall, James Brown, and Jackie Robinson. He was once fired from the Soap Opera, All My Children when he questioned the character they wanted him to play. The character’s father had walked out of his life when he was a child and his mother was addicted to heroin. Ironically, Michael B. Jordan, his nemesis in Black Panther, took the role after him.
Boseman lived up to his Superhero role image in real life but earlier this month he took his journey to be with the ancestors. His works, we will learn in the coming weeks, stretched far beyond America, Wakanda, or the world. His works have followed him (Revelations 14:13) to Heaven.
Below is the full commencement Boseman addressed that brought tears to the eyes of Howard University graduates.