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Dave Chappelle, Colin Kaepernick honored with Harvard black culture awards

Comedian Dave Chappelle, left, and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, right, applaud during W.E.B. Du Bois Medal award ceremonies, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Comedian and activist Dave Chappelle and former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick were honored Thursday with the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal at the sixth annual Hutchins Center Honors presented by the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

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The two were among eight total recipients honored at the ceremony. Other honorees included artist Kehinde Wiley, philanthropist and Harvard graduate Kenneth I. Chenault, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Shirley Ann Jackson, philanthropist and Harvard graduate Pamela Joyner, Director Emerita of the Harvard Bunting Institute and professor Florence Ladd and Executive Director and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and graduate Bryan Stevenson.

According to the Hutchins Center, the medals honor those who advocate for human rights and who have made significant contributions to African and African-American history and culture.

The full ceremony can be watched on YouTube. Kaepernick’s remarks were not broadcast due to Kaepernick’s collusion case against the NFL.