Death Can Never Take Chadwick Boseman’s Ability to Inspire

A little over six years ago, Stuart Scott delivered a beautiful speech at the 2014 ESPY Awards. He was accepting the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance in recognition of his brave fight against appendiceal cancer. Scott’s words rivaled only that of Jim Valvano himself: “When you die, that does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live and in the manner in which you live”.

How could anyone have possibly exemplified those words better than Chadwick Boseman?

In the past four years, Boseman helped create some of the biggest motion pictures of all-time. The most memorable is, of course, Black Panther — the first Black superhero in American comics history finally made the big screen. He worked on two more Avengers movies in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, as well as starring in Marshall, 21 Bridges, Da 5 Bloods and the yet-to-be-released Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Boseman did all of this while privately dealing with late stage colon cancer. Behind the scenes of three of the twelve highest grossing movies of all-time and a demanding media tour schedule, he was fighting for his life.

Perhaps there are no words to fully describe the nobility and selflessness of Chadwick Boseman, but I am going to try my best. He went out of his way to honor James Shaw Jr., the hero who stopped an active shooter at a Waffle House. Now it’s time we honor him.

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The cultural significance of Black Panther is something that truly cannot be captured by words of a white male like myself. Jamil Smith wrote in his 2018 feature about the revolutionary power of Black Panther, “If you are reading this and you are white, seeing people who look like you in mass media probably isn’t something you think about often. Every day, the culture reflects not only you, but nearly infinite versions of you–executives, poets, garbage collectors, soldiers, nurses and so on. The world shows you that your possibilities are boundless.”

As white people, we can never understand the feeling of watching one of our own become the first to climb to the mountaintop. We have controlled the mountaintop in essentially every aspect of society for nearly the entirety of human history. In politics, entertainment, you name it — white people denied everyone else access to the mountaintop.

Black Panther changed that. Fortunately, that exact feeling of was captured on film. In the video below, you can hear an emotional audience roaring with pride during a scene from Avengers: Endgame as T’Challa is the first Avenger to accompany Captain America in their fight against Thanos.

pic.twitter.com/gPn8pKchYs https://t.co/PPRp5G6CIA

— Bottom Feeder (@mizzymicole) August 29, 2020

Not Iron Man. Not Thor. Not Hulk. It was the Black Panther. It was Chadwick Boseman.

To say Black Panther inspired Black boys, girls, men and women across America and around the world isn’t sufficient praise. African Americans had never seen a superhero who looked like them. They never had an action figure or a Halloween costume that represented them. They had never seen someone, let alone nearly an entire cast and directer, who looked like them star in a billion dollar movie. They had never seen a billion dollar movie about not only Africans, not only Africans who spoke with an accent unaffected by European imperialism and colonialism, but Africans with unlimited power, strength and wealth.

Hear what these people say. Look at the pride in their face. This is why, representation is important.

Incredible work #ChadwickBoseman. May you rest now. You’ve inspired a generation to dream in color. https://t.co/LHjvjKC9tK

— Mustafa Ali / Adeel Alam (@AliWWE) August 29, 2020

No Marvel movie had ever won an Academy Award; Black Panther won three.

No superhero or comic book movie had ever been nominated for “Best Picture”, Black Panther did.

No African American had won an Oscar for “Best Costume Design”; Black Panther’s Ruth E. Carther did.

The students just found out we are all going to see BLACK PANTHER! We will have a day of cultural classes, African dancers, historical lessons and then we will all go see the film! Turn up!!!! @ronclarkacademy @chadwickboseman #tlhanna pic.twitter.com/oUhWse5ghr

— Wade King (@heywadeking) February 2, 2018

Even if the film didn’t win a single award, it’s impact still would have been immeasurable. Just watch the excitement in the faces of these kids. This video has become a meme; that little boy became the face of pure joy. That’s all thanks to Chadwick Boseman, Ryan Coogler and everyone who created Black Panther.

The Black Panther might be a fictional superhero, but not to these kids. He was an example of someone who looked like them who reached the mountaintop. Someone who did so by celebrating Black excellence and culture. That’s the type of impact that stays with a child and even grown-ass adults for life. As co-star Michael B. Jordan said in his tribute to his dear friend “‘Is this your king!?’ Yes. He. Is.”

To those kids, Chadwick Boseman was a real life superhero. And you know what, they were right all along. Because that’s exactly who Chadwick Boseman was: a superhero.

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Boseman knew Black Panther was special long before it ever reached theaters. He knew that the influence of the movie would be transformative for generations to come. In an interview with Sirius XM, Boseman talked about his interactions with two little boys, Ian and Taylor, who were fighting terminal cancer. He says the kids were “just trying to hold on until [Black Panther] comes”. This movie was the reason those kids continued to fight every single day. That’s an impossible burden to bear, so of course Boseman ensured it exceeded all expectations.

Little did those kids know that Boseman was fighting his own battle right alongside them. Conversations with those kids very much inspired Boseman to continue working through his treatments. He understood that he had an opportunity to inspire millions of kids the same way Ian and Taylor inspired him.

Purpose is something that clearly drove Boseman. He spoke a great deal about purpose in his speech at Howard University’s commencement ceremony in 2018.

“Your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to fulfill. Whatever you choose for a career path, remember, the struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose.”

Chadwick Boseman’s speech at the 2018 Howard commencement ceremony

Nobody knew what he was going through in his personal life. We still know hardly nothing about it. Only he knew for the past four years that his time on Earth was likely limited. He could no longer live solely for the purpose of living, and with that realization, he found his purpose: to inspire. To elevate. To open doors.

He encouraged them to do the same. To take the road less traveled. To embrace the ambiguity of a winding path in search of purpose.

Boseman gave what precious time he had left to others. He uplifted as many children battling life-threatening illnesses as he could. He was always purposeful in choosing his roles, long before he was famous. He was diligent in respectfully embodying the figures and characters he portrayed.

When faced with his own mortality, he chose to create something immortal.

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It was a running joke that Boseman was going to play “every epic Black man ever”. Chadwick Boseman had already portrayed some of the most iconic, influential and important Black figures in American history. When it came time to cast a Barack Obama biopic, surely Boseman would be the choice, right? Boseman was so uniquely talented that Van Lathan joked on the “Higher Learning” podcast that he believed Boseman could’ve played Maya Angelou if he wanted.

Brian Helgeland, director of 42, told the New York Times’ Reggie Ugwu of Boseman’s stature, “It’s the way he carries himself, his stillness — you just have that feeling that you’re around a strong person… I think that’s who Chad is as a person”.

That’s the special, intangible quality that separated Boseman from his peers. The average actor can’t play Jackie Robinson or Thurgood Marshall. There has to be a part of them that not only fully recognizes and appreciates the aura, charisma and strength of those individuals, but carries an equal amount of those qualities in themselves.

It also speaks to the audacity of Boseman. Who else would dare to play Jackie Robinson in their debut as a leading man? Who else could play Stormin’ Norman, an eerily prophetic character in Da 5 Bloods? Who else could complete a full-circle in Hollywood in just eight years?

In his final film, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, he worked with producer Denzel Washington. Way back in Boseman’s college days, the legendary actor, director and producer covered Boseman’s expenses to attend the British Academy of Dramatic Acting in Oxford. “There is no Black Panther without Denzel Washington” said Boseman in a speech honoring Washington in 2019.

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It’s poetic that Boseman’s breakout performance came as Jackie Robinson in 42. We all know Robinson’s story, breaking the color barrier in professional baseball on April 15, 1947. MLB honors Robinson every year on this date, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the celebration was moved to August 28th. That was the date Robinson first met with Dodgers’ GM Branch Rickey about potentially playing for Brooklyn. August 28th is also the anniversary of the March on Washington in 1963. And in 2020, it is the date Chadwick Boseman passed away.

This beautiful scene in 42 captures everything about Boseman’s legacy. For context, the movie had shown a few African American boys watching Robinson play throughout Spring Training in 1946. It was only the preseason, but this was Robinson’s first taste of professional baseball. Those kids knew the significance of what Robinson was doing and it meant everything to them. Robinson was a hero to these kids before he ever wore the number 42.

When Spring Training came to a close, the kids went to the local train station in hopes of stealing one last look at their idol. As Robinson boards a departing train, he draws one of the kids’ attention and tosses him a baseball. This kid, Ed Charles, is absolutely beaming. He’s overflowing with joy and awe.

The kids chase the train on foot for as long as they can, desperately trying to hold onto the greatest moment of their young lives for as long as possible. As the train disappears into the distance, Charles puts his ear to the tracks and listens. I can still hear him. I CAN STILL HEAR HIM! Robinson is long gone, but Charles knows his hero is still out there, somewhere.

This scene, aside from Robinson giving Charles a baseball, happened in real life. A little boy named Ed Charles grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, chased Robinson’s train and listened to the tracks as he vanished into the horizon. This little boy grew up to be a Major League Baseball player, winning the World Series with the Mets in 1969. Without Robinson, that never would have been possible.

Chadwick Boseman, like that train, is gone. But for all the kids who are young, gifted and Black, the tracks will never stop rattling. Black Panther is everlasting. Boseman made sure of that.

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