LeVar Burton, Ice T, Spike Lee Receive Du Bois Medals at Hutchins Center Ceremony

The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research awarded eight individuals, including rapper Ice T and filmmaker Spike Lee, the W.E.B Du Bois Medal at the Hutchins Center Honors in Sanders Theater on Tuesday evening.

Besides Lee and Ice T, who were not present for the ceremony, the recipients also included actor LeVar R. Burton Jr., legal scholar and activist Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, and former Harvard women’s basketball coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. The awardees were announced on Sept. 24th.

“As you may have noticed, Ice T and Spike are not with us today,” said Glenn H. Hutchins ’77, the founder of the Hutchins Family Foundation. “They send their sincere regrets and Spike promises to be here next time.”

Hutchins, whose foundation established the Hutchins Center, also used his time to address Harvard College students in the crowd with an inspirational message.

“We hope and expect that some of you will be on this stage in decades in the future receiving this award,” Hutchins said.

Colombia Vice President Francia Márquez Mina, second from left, poses for a photo after receiving the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal. By Daniel Morales Rosales

The Du Bois medal, named for pioneering Black sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois, Class of 1890, is given to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the fields of African and African American culture and studies from a variety of different fields. Past recipients of the award have included former NBA basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, professional boxer Muhammed Ali, and singer Harry Belafonte.

The ceremony featured performances from Kuumba Singers of Harvard College and saw University Provost John F. Manning ’82 and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra read excerpts from Du Bois’s 1903 classic “The Souls of Black Folk.”

Harvard Divinity School Dean Marla F. Frederick also opened the ceremony with a blessing and some remarks.

“We give thanks for the opportunity tonight to honor and celebrate those who have set goals, who have reached for the stars,” said Frederick, “and in that reaching have lifted as they climb.”

The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College perform at the Tuesday ceremony. By Daniel Morales Rosales

Other speakers at the event included Hutchins Center Director Henry Louis Gates Jr., who spoke about the life of Du Bois — the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard — and called for the audience to “never, ever yield.”

“One of the things of which I’m proudest about the Hutchins Center is that it is a place founded on the principles of and dedicated to the protection of freedom of speech and thought, colloquy, and the free exchange of ideas without penalty,” said Gates.

The medalists, he added, personified “these principles in the most spectacular of ways.”

—Staff writer Neeraja S. Kumar can be reached at neeraja.kumar@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @neerajasrikumar.