Oprah Winfrey Receives Honorary Doctorate

Celebrity News June 26, 2011 AT 12:14PM
Oprah Winfrey Receives Honorary Doctorate Credit: Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Dr. Oprah Winfrey!

The former queen of daytime accepted an honorary degree from the University of the Free State in South Africa on Friday.

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According to the Chicago Sun Times, Winfrey, 57, came to the school where five years ago, four white students made a video humiliating black housekeeping staff. In the clip, the housekeepers were shown eating a stew the students had mimed spiking with urine. 

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When Winfrey received her honorary education doctorate Friday, she called the five cleaners to the stage and pronounced them heroes. "What has happened here at Free State in terms of racial reconciliation, of peace, of harmony, of one heart understanding and opening itself to another heart is nothing short of a miracle," she said. "It is truly what the new South Africa is all about."

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Winfrey is a frequent visitor of South Africa; in 2007 she opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Henley on Kilp, south of Johannesburg.

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  • June 27, 2011 - 12:10am Christina Albert

    @Isabel couldn't have said it better

  • June 26, 2011 - 9:39pm Fani Vrentas

    She seems like a nice lady and a smart one too but I don't believe in honorary degrees. I believed an education must be earned.

  • June 26, 2011 - 9:37pm Angela Clark-Smith

    Congratulations Dr.O! You look so precious..I wish I could just give you a big hug! Love you soooo much :-)

  • June 26, 2011 - 5:06pm Isabel Lani

    She truly is a super-woman, came from nowhere and nothing, and look what she achieved, all by herself, no rich ex-husbands or scandals involved. A shining role model for all hard-working girls out there who do not give up and try to make a better life, against all odds, no matter what. All those despicable bimbos out there in life and on TV, in horrible shows or bragging with sex tapes, rehab and jail time, soulless starlets with botox and surgery instead of heart and brain, "celebrities" without any talent whose only achievments include their hair, breasts, extensions, pregnancies or slipless appearances...here is a real woman whose life is living proof that you can make it big without losing dignity.

  • June 26, 2011 - 1:02pm Yuliana Ho

    Aww.. she's about to cry there.. love u Oprah..

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