Chadwick Boseman is to be honoured with a statue of himself in his hometown, the city’s mayor has confirmed.
In the days following the Black Panther star’s death, a petition was started calling for a Confederate monument to be replaced with a statue of Boseman.
The monument can’t be removed without going through a voting process in the South Carolina State Senate – in which it would have to receive two-thirds of the vote in its favour – due to the state’s Heritage Act law. However, a statue of the actor is in the works regardless of this.
According to TMZ, Terence Roberts – mayor of Anderson, South Carolina – said the city was “enthusiastically working on a permanent public tribute to honour” Boseman. It is said to include “a mix of sculpture with mural or art elements” and an artist has already been consulted.
Public input into the memorial will be sought, while there are already several ideas in the works for what form the statue could take.
Boseman, who was born and raised in Anderson, died last Friday (August 28) after a secret four-year battle with colon cancer. He was 43 years old.
Yesterday (September 3), it was reported that the star hadn’t told anyone at Marvel or Disney about his cancer diagnosis because he wanted to finish filming Black Panther 2. Boseman played T’Challa, the king of Wakanda, in the first Black Panther movie in 2016.
Letitia Wright, who starred alongside Boseman in the groundbreaking Marvel movie, shared a six-minute spoken word tribute to the actor earlier this week (September 2). “My brother, an angel on Earth departed,” she said in it.
“A soul so beautiful. When you walked into the room, there was calm. You always moved with grace and ease. Every time I saw you, the world would be a better place.”
