Filmmaker Ava DuVernay, actor and rapper LL Cool J, and six others received the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal—Harvard's highest honor in the field of African and African American Studies—before a zealous crowd in Sanders Theatre Wednesday afternoon.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — "Selma‚" director Ava DuVernay and rapper LL Cool J are among the recipients of Harvard University's 2017 W.E.B. Du Bois medals honoring those who have made significant contributions to African and African-American history and culture.

On Wednesday night, October 4th, filmmaker Ava DuVernay and Hip-Hop icon and actor LL Cool J were honored at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research with the Hutchins Center Honors W.E.B. Du Bois Medal for their substantial contributions to African and African American history and culture.

AFTER CAUSING A STIR when she announced the lengthy, provocative title of her latest exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins, Kara Walker is being honored with a W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Walker is among eight recipients of the 2017 award, including filmmaker Ava DuVernay, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, who worked with Agnes Gund to establish an Art for Justice Fund that supports criminal justice reforms aimed at reducing mass incarceration.

Rap icon LL Cool J, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, and artist Kara Walker are among those who will be celebrated next month during an annual ceremony at Harvard's Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.

A center at Harvard University devoted to the study of people of African descent has received a $10 million donation from its namesake, financier Glenn Hutchins, to research poverty, inequality, and race among residents in Greater Boston's most impoverished neighborhoods.

William Julius Wilson talks about new research that will study race and adversity. And Glenn Hutchins, North Island chairman talks about funding the project through the Hutchins Family Foundation.