Praise for Queen Latifah’s contributions to black culture continues to pour in for the Newark, New Jersey native. According to the Associated Press, the “U.N.I.T.Y” rapper will receive Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal.
Alongside the award-winning entertainer, other game-changers in black culture will be honored on Oct. 22 including BET’s co-founder Sheila Johnson, CEO of Vista Equity Partners Robert Smith, poet Rita Dove and more.
The occasion arrives over a year since Latifah received an honorary doctorate degree from Rutgers University in her New Jersey home state.
“This place has shaped me,” she said during her acceptance speech. “Whether it’s been your home for four years or 40 years or something in between, you carry it with you. Just as I have. Long before Living Single and Set It Off and Chicago, it’s lessons I learned right here at home that made me the person I am.”
The W.E.B. Du Bois Medal isn’t only named after the activist but commemorates Du Bois’ feat as the first black student to obtain a doctorate degree from the Ivy League.
