In 2005 Harvard Was Shut Out of Rhodes Scholarships: But Two Black Students From the United States Won Awards

Headnote

Over the past century more than 300 Harvard students have won Rhodes scholarships. Yet this year, for only the second time in 76 years, there were no Rhodes scholars from Harvard University. There have been many years in which no blacks received a Rhodes scholarship. But this year two black students from the United States will he going to Oxford in the fall ax new Rhodes scholars.

Since the Rhodes scholarships were first awarded a little more than century ago, 313 winners have come from Harvard University. In 2004 six of the 32 Rhodes scholars from the United States, including the only African-American winner, had ties to Harvard University.

In 2005 it appeared that Harvard would have another banner year in Rhodes awards. Of the 99 finalists in 2005, 17 were Harvard students or graduates. But when the final selections of the 32 American Rhodes scholars were named, not one of the winners was a graduate of Harvard University. This was only the second time in the past 76 years that none of the winners of the prestigious Rhodes scholarship were candidates from Harvard.

There have been many years in which black students have been shut out of Rhodes scholarships. But not this year. Two black students are among the 32 U.S. winners of Rhodes scholarships. They will be going to Oxford this coming fall. Garrett W. Johnson is a graduate of Florida State University, and the other Rhodes scholar, Sasha-Mae Eccleston, is a senior at Brown University.

African Americans have had a storied history in the Rhodes scholarship program. British industrialist Cecil J. Rhodes, the founder of the Rhodes scholarship program, was deeply committed to beliefs in the inherent superiority of the white race. Writing in 1877 he said, "I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. Just fancy those parts that are at present inhabited by the most despicable specimen of human beings, what an alteration there would be in them if they were brought under AngloSaxon influence."

Rhodes accumulated a vast fortune from mining and industrial projects in southern Africa. He died in 1902. His scholarship trust called for "bettering the...