In his commencement speech at Howard University, Chadwick Boseman referenced his blockbuster movie “Black Panther” and ended the stirring address with the “Wakanda Forever” salute.
Boseman, 40, is a 2000 graduate of Howard. He used his Saturday speech to encourage students to be passionate in their pursuit of life and to also fight for equality and justice.
Boseman referenced student protests about a financial aid scandal and for more affordable tuition and housing on campus, telling them that he too spoke out against what he saw as problems when he attended almost 20 years ago.
“You love the university enough to struggle with it,” Boseman said, CNN reported. “Now you have to continue to do that. ... Everything that you fought for was not for yourself. If was for those who come after.”
Boseman also described his early acting days when he got fired from a soap opera he didn’t name for questioning its stereotypical portrayal of black characters.
“The struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose,” Boseman said, CNN reported.
“Purpose is the essential element of you,” Boseman said in his remarks, NPR reported. “It is the reason you are here on the planet at this particular time in history. Your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to fulfill.”
“I don’t know what your future is,” Boseman said, “but if you’re willing to take the harder way, the more complicated one, the one with more failures at first than successes ... then you will not regret it.”
Boseman ended his remarks with the now-famous salute from his $1.3 billion-grossing movie, saying “Howard forever.”
More than 2,000 students graduated from Howard this year.
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