On Friday, the world lost Chadwick Boseman. He had secretly been battling colon cancer for the past four years, all while entertaining everyone through film. Through his movies and actions, he has cemented a legacy.

“He was humbly fighting this battle that no one knew about and he didn’t seek any sort of attention for his hardship, which is admirable,” Coppell High School senior Jillian Richter said.

His acting won many accolades, among which was an outpouring of love from the whole world.

“It’s like mourning the loss of someone we knew personally because he meant so much to so many people,” CHS debate teacher SunHee Simon said.

Boseman is widely known for his iconic role as Black Panther, the first African American superhero in mainstream comics. He represented the African American community proudly and brought to life a hero for the youth to admire.

“He was a role model to a lot of African American kids because they don’t often have someone to look up to in film,” Richter said. “He exemplified all the good qualities you would want a person to have.”

Boseman  allowed many African Americans’ dreams of seeing someone who looked like them on screen come true.

“The aesthetic storytelling and the project itself is the biggest thing he has left behind. It’s not just a picture or a collectible, it’s a film, a visual revolutionary piece that so many people are going to hold on to,” Simon said.

When Boseman attended Howard University, he worked at an African bookstore where he would admire T’Challa in the Black Panther comics. When he got the opportunity to portray him, he took it.

“The comic book has been around for a while, but to see an illustration is one thing. It’s another to see the reality of something many people didn’t think was possible,” Simon said.

Black Panther is one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, earning more than $1.3 billion in global revenue. It was a watershed in the film industry and gave more opportunities for African American artists. 

“He was King of Wakanda,”  Richter said. “He will always be seen as the King. People are going to mourn him like a King.”

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