Photo credit: Emma McIntyre/ Getty
The NAACP Image Awards commemorated both the life and career of the late Chadwick Boseman this year and his wife, Taylor Simone Ledward Boseman, accepted the award on his behalf.
Congratulations to #ChadwickBoseman 🕊️ – Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, @MaRaineyFilm – 52nd #NAACPImageAwards 🏆 pic.twitter.com/dicXxx4uOS
— NAACP Image Awards® (@naacpimageaward) March 28, 2021
Gone but NEVER forgotten. Thank you for everything you have done for us #ChadwickBoseman! #RestInPower
— NAACP Image Awards® (@naacpimageaward) March 28, 2021
“As always, he would give all honor and glory to the most high God,” she said, through tears. “He would thank his mom and dad, and he would give honor to the ancestors as we now honor him. Thank you NAACP Image Awards for always giving him his flowers. He was an uncommon artist and an even more uncommon person. But the manner in which we lost him is not uncommon at all. Not in our community.”
The late actor won the award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for his work alongside of Viola Davis in the Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. This was one of his last films before he passed away at 43, because of a long four-year battle with cancer.
Outstanding Actor In A Motion Picture goes to… Chadwick Boseman! Congratulations! We can honor his legacy by visiting https://t.co/gmZDyIUWxI to gain awareness. #NAACPImageAwards pic.twitter.com/xzEJnT3OHC
— BET (@BET) March 28, 2021
During the acceptance, the widow also spoke to those watching and urged the Black community to have colon cancer screenings.
Chadwick Boseman’s wife, Simone Ledward Boseman, has a very important message concerning colon cancer. Black people are 20% more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer and 40% more likely to die from it. Read more about this disease here: https://t.co/Bt2NYbitIW
— NAACP Image Awards® (@naacpimageaward) March 28, 2021
“Black people in this country are 20 percent more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer and 40 percent more likely to die from it. The age for routine screening has recently been lowered to 45, so if you are 45 years of age or older, please get screened. Don’t put it off any longer, please get screened,” she pointed out.
“This disease is beatable if you catch it in its early stages so you don’t have any time to waste even if you have no family history and even if you think nothing is wrong,” she continued, “And if you are younger than 45, please be proactive about your health. Know the signs, know the science, listen to your body. If you need more information, and for a full list of colon cancer symptoms you can visit standuptocancer.org/coloncancersymptoms. Please, you are so needed and you are so loved. Please take your health into your own hands. Thank you.”
