Rapper, actress, and producer Queen Latifah will be recognized by Harvard University for her contributions to black history and culture. The multi-hyphenate is slated to receive the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal among six other recipients on October 22, as CBS News reports.
Latifah will be presented the medal by Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Others to be honored are poet and educator Elizabeth Alexander, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie Bunch III, poet Rita Dove, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television Sheila Johnson, artist Kerry James Marshall and Robert Smith, founder, chairman, and chief executive of Vista Equity Partners.
The prestigious award pays homage to scholar, writer, editor, and civil rights pioneer Du Bois. The black historical figure became the first black student to earn a doctorate fro Harvard in 1895.