Actress Pam Grier, opera singer Jessye Norman and rapper MC Lyte are just a few of the recipients of Harvard University’s 2016 W.E.B. Du Bois medals, which are bestowed upon those who have made significant contributions to African and African-American history and culture.
The women will be honored Oct. 6, along with The Wire's writer and producer David Simon and the 1966 Texas Western Miners men’s basketball team, which was the first all-black starting lineup to win an NCAA national championship.
The awards are presented by the university's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, which Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr., The Root's chairman, is the director of. The center, which was created in 2013, houses the Afro-Latin American Research Institute, the History Design Studio, the Program for the Study of Race and Gender in Science and Medicine, and the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art.