At Harvard’s sixth annual Hutchins Center Honors, comedian Dave Chappelle and athlete and activist Colin Kaepernick will be honored with W.E.B. Du Bois Medal.
The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University will award a total of eight individuals in a ceremony on October 11.
The medal is given to individuals for advocating human rights and intercultural understanding and for making contributions to African and African-American culture and history.
“In the year of the 150th anniversary of his birth, W.E.B. Du Bois would be proud of the eight individuals being recognized at this year’s Hutchins Center Honors,” Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the Hutchins Center, said.
“Emerging from a variety of backgrounds and professions, each represents the quest for knowledge, freedom of expression, and pursuit of truth that are foundational to black history and culture, and that were foundational to Du Bois as a thinker and activist.”
Along with Chappelle and Kaepernick, honorees include Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson, artist Kehinde Wiley, Bryan Stevenson executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, philanthropist Pamela J. Joyner, Kenneth I. Chenault managing director of General Catalyst and author Florence C. Ladd.