August 28, 2020

I wrote this piece two years ago after the passing of Chadwick Boseman. Wakanda Forever debuts tomorrow, and as I get ready to go and see it, I keep thinking about Boseman’s impact and legacy along with the confluence of history surroudning August 28, 2020.

On Saturday August 29, 2020, I awoke and checked my phone. The notification from one of the news services told me that Chadwick Boseman had passes away of cancer at the age of 43. In 2016, he was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer. He did not speak publicly about the diagnosis, and over the course of the next four years he filmed various films including Marshall, 21 Bridges, Da 5 Bloods, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Along with these, he completed some of the biggest action films of the past few years with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: End Game. On top of all of this, he starred in 2018’s Black Panther, a cinematic and cultural touchstone.

Boseman passed away on August 28, 2020. That date holds a lot of significance. On that day in 1955, Emmett Till was murdered. On that day in 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom occurred and Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial. On that day in 1917, Jack Kirby, co-creator of Black Panther, was born. On that same day in 2020, author Randall Keenan passed away. Four days later, on September 1, 2020, the Google Doodle of the day was…