The Hutchins Center Honors are back with a new slate of honorees after a nearly three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The W.E.B Du Bois Medal will be awarded to seven honorees “who embody the values of commitment and resolve that are fundamental to the Black experience in America” for their contributions to African and African American culture, the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research announced on Wednesday.

Perseverance was a theme at this year’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal awards. So too was courage.

“Understand that there will be times when you will have to stand alone. There will be no one else that will believe in your dream,” Queen Latifah, hip-hop artist, actor, and medal recipient, told a packed audience Tuesday evening at Sanders Theatre. “There are plenty of people who told us we will never be where we are today … but we don’t believe those people. You have to be strong and be courageous and just know that if you believe in it, it’s going to happen. Don’t give up. Do not quit....

Read more about Harvard Gazette: 'Persistence, courage take the dais'

In 1895, W.E.B. Du Bois became the first black student to earn a doctorate from Harvard. Over a century later, Queen Latifah is being honored by the prestigious institution with an award bearing his name.

Music artist and actress Queen Latifah is among the honorees being recognized by Harvard University this year for their contributions to black history and culture.

Music artist and actress Queen Latifah is among the honorees being recognized by Harvard University this year for their contributions to black history and culture. Harvard is set to award the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal to Queen Latifah and six other recipients on October 22.

Oscar-nominated actress Queen Latifah and Pulitzer Prize winning-poet Rita Dove will receive the W.E.B. Du Bois medal alongside five other recipients, the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research announced Tuesday.

America’s museums are more than repositories of ancient Greek statues and Renaissance paintings. They are guardians of a fading social and demographic order. On Thursday, Warren Kanders resigned from the board of the Whitney Museum of Art, after protests over his company’s sale of tear gas grenades that were reportedly used on asylum seekers. His case reveals the extent to which museums have become contested spaces in a rapidly-changing country.