Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick will be honored at the prestigious Harvard University next month, CBS Boston reports.

Kaepernick, Dave Chappelle and six other people will receive the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal during the Hutchins Center Honors event on Oct. 11.

The award is described as “Harvard’s highest honor in the field of African and African American studies.”

“The medal honors those who have made significant contributions to African and African American history and culture, and more broadly, individuals who advocate for intercultural understanding and human rights in an increasingly global and interconnected world,” the school said in its announcement.

The news comes after Kaepernick was selected to be a part of Nike’s 30th Anniversary campaign that featured the tagline “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.”

The former NFL player has been a lightning rod of controversy since he began kneeling during the national anthem before football games to protest police brutality.

Harvard recognized Kaepernick’s $1 million donation to different charities in a press release, according to CBS Boston.

In addition to Kaepernick and Chappelle, businessman Kenneth Chenault, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson, philanthropist Pamela Joyner, psychologist and author Florence Ladd, social justice activist Bryan Stevenson and artist Kehinde Wiley will be awarded the medal.

“In the year of the 150th anniversary of his birth, W. E. B. Du Bois would be proud of the eight individuals being recognized at this year’s Hutchins Center Honors,” said Henry Louis Gates Jr., who serves as the center’s director.