By Randall Barnes
The social media sphere was collectively amazed by the news of Jaycob Linsey’s high school graduation. Linsey is known for his dance moves in a viral Ron Clark Academy video from 2018 where he was celebrating the fact that his class was going to see Black Panther.
The caption from February 2018 read, “That moment when the whole school finds out they’re going to see @Marvel’s new movie, @BlackPanther!”
The video is now a huge part of meme culture, popping up in on various social media platforms. Ron Clark Academy Chief Development & Communications Officer Kirk Brown set social media ablaze with a post highlighting Linsey’s major accomplishment of graduating from high school.
“Wanna feel old? SWIPE. Proud of my guy, Jaycob, for graduating high school last night! Definitely feels like yesterday when he was dancing with his classmates on the RCA tables. Ha,” Brown said in a caption.
Adding to the joy and awe, Brown shared to popular HBCU media outlet HBCU Alum via the comment section of the post that Linsey is HBCU bound, as he will be attending Alabama A&M in the Fall. In a post on his personal Instagram page, Linsey spoke about his unique high school journey that started during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020.
“Starting High school on line was such a hard experience for me. It took everything to push through and I couldn’t even imagine THIS DAY. I thank God , my parents and my village for all of the love and support to get here. Love yal!”
Black Panther star and Howard University alumnus Chad-wick Boseman actually saw the video in an appearance on The View in February 2018 and reacted positively.
“Oh man, that’s why you do this. … That’s one of the reasons why I get up in the morning.”
The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg illustrated the gravity of the moment perfectly, saying, “The importance of this movie is not just for little brown boys and girls but for all boys and girls to know that super-heroes come in all colors. They haven’t really known this.”
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter in 2020, Linsey spoke about the passing of Chadwick Boseman.
“To be honest, I still can’t get over him passing away. By looking at him, I would have never thought that he was suffering from colon cancer. It’s hard to believe because he always seemed to have joy and happiness on his face.”
Linsey will be following in Boseman’s footsteps, as he will also be attending an HBCU for his college journey.
Randall Barnes is ClutchPoints’ Head of HBCU (Historically Black College or University) content and the founder of HBCU Pulse, a multimedia outlet with the mission to tell the authentic stories of HBCU Life via traditional, digital and social media outlets.
