Chadwick Boseman Says He Saw The KKK Holding Rallies While Filming 'Black Panther'

While filming Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman says he’d often witness KKK rallies in a Walmart parking lot during trips to see his family.

The actor told Mr. Porter that he would occasionally visit his family in South Carolina, when he witnessed the Ku Klux Klan holding rallies “in a Walmart car park.”

“When I was shooting Black Panther in Atlanta, I used to drive back on off-days to go see my family in Anderson. It’s about two hours,” he told the publication. “And I would see the Klan holding rallies in a Walmart car park.”

He added, “So it’s like we’re going forwards and backwards at the same time. People don’t want to experience change, they just want to wake up and it’s different. But this — shooting Black Panther and then driving past the Klan —that’s what change feels like.”

The actor plays the titular superhero in the highly anticipated film, which is already projected to be one of Marvel’s biggest films. Black Panther is expected to gross almost $150 million its opening weekend. 

The actor went on to share that he experienced racism firsthand growing up in Anderson. “I know what it’s like to be a kid at an ice-cream shop when some little white kid calls you ‘n****r‘, but your parents tell you to calm down because they know it could blow up. We even had trucks try to run us off the road.”

“It’s not hard to find in South Carolina. Going to high school, I’d see Confederate flags on trucks,” he said.