By Sophia Pu | Staff Writer

   On Aug. 28, the world was shocked to hear that Chadwick Boseman, the actor that played King T’Challa in Marvel’s “Black Panther,” had died.

   In the family’s announcement on Twitter, it was revealed that he died of stage four colon cancer. None of the people he worked with knew. With tributes and condolences flooding in, the announcement tweet became the most liked in history, showing how many lives Boseman touched.

   “The news of his passing is a punch to my gut every morning,” wrote “Black Panther” co-star, Lupita Nyong’o, in an Instagram post. “You come across some people in life that possess an immortal energy […] Chadwick was one of those people.”

   Also on Instagram, Michael B. Jordan, who played T’Challa’s rival, Eric Killmonger, wrote, “I wish we had more time. Everything you’ve given the world … the legends and heroes that you’ve shown us we are … will live on forever.”

   Jordan is right.  In every role Boseman played, he created waves of connection and pride for the black community. He made ripples in his early theatre productions and formed a swell when he stood up to the racial stereotypes in the soap opera “All My Children.” Boseman created tidal waves in his portrayal of black sports, music, and legal icons, Jackie Robinson, James Brown, and Thurgood Marshall, respectively.

   Nothing, however, could compare to his tsunami of a performance as King T’Challa in “Black Panther”.

   As film critic Owen Gleiberman put it in Variety magazine, “Boseman knew how to fuse with a role, etching it in three dimensions, bringing it his own truth. That’s what made him an artist, and a movie star, too. Yet in ‘Black Panther,’ he also became that rare thing, a culture hero.”

   Boseman’s portrayal of King T’Challa normalized African culture, pride, and beauty for White audiences and other people of color. And, Black children across the globe finally saw a superhero that looked like them, in a film that highlighted black success, instead of black suffering.

   As Erlanger Turner explained in the Houston Chronicle, “The movie brings a moment of positivity to a group of people often not the centerpiece of Hollywood movies.”

   The waves Boseman made brought hope and broke stereotypes. King T’Challa served his people with strength and love, just as Boseman lived his life with respect and passion. Although Boseman is gone from this world, the impact he made is not.  Millions of young black people will ride the waves he created for a very long time.