A Tribute Fit For A King – Remembering Black Hollywood Royalty Chadwick Boseman

This is not fair for the African American culture!

I have been in tears all weekend gathering my thoughts after the news broke that Hollywood Actor Chadwick Boseman died at the age of 43 years old Friday (August 28th) due to colon cancer.

I haven't fully accepted the fact that we lost NBA icon Kobe Bryant and his daughter earlier in the year, but this loss truly hurt as it feels like I have lost a family member.

I have been a fan of Chadwick for a long time before he took the mantel of Black Panther as he was on the small screen in numerous television shows.

Then when the movie 42 was announced and he played Jackie Robinson I knew he was special because he gave one hell of a performance in that movie, but Chadwick was just getting started.

The next movie that put him on the map was "Get On Up" where he portrayed the Godfather of Soul James Brown and he instantly turned into one of my favorite actors anticipating what he was going to do next.

Chadwick would go on to play Thrugood Marshall, and other notable movies but when the Marvel Universe picked him up to play T'Challa / Black Panther something changed for the culture.

We got a glimpse of greatness in Captain America: Civil War, but when Black Panther hit the movie theaters two years later Black culture went into a frenzy as movie goers came out in droves  dressed in African gear to watch our first Black superhero.

"Wakanda Forever" was more than a movie quote as Black's said to one another in passing as we showed solidarity with the movie.

We didn't know that within the last four years of his life Chadwick was fighting his own super villain privately and managed to put out out ground breaking movies before his untimely death.

I am a few months older than Chadwick so his death hit me hard as he had so much of an impact on the culture and became a global superstar.

How can we repay Chadwick for his services and to keep his legacy alive?

One is for all men especially men of color to get screened for colon cancer by having a colonoscopy.  We need to take better care of our health including myself as I circle my doctors appointment on my calendar.

Another way to celebrate Chadwick is to treat election day November 3rd like Black Panther premier date and flood the polls and exercise our political power and VOTE!

To check your voting status click here.

Chadwick, even though we have never met I would like to thank you for your contributions to the African-American culture when it was much needed and I'm not going to lie....This one really hurt!

Your legacy will continue to live on as our King for the culture.

Rest well.....

#ChadwickForever