The Rhodes Scholar trust didn't allow black African applicants till 1991, when it was forced to.

[pnwmom]

Coincidentally, Cory Booker graduated from Stanford in 1991. Few African Americans had received Rhodes scholarships before then, including a winner whose identity as an African American appears not to have been known by the Rhodes Trust.

https://www.bestvalueschools.com/faq/what-is-a-rhodes-scholar/

Controversy has laid a blanket of concern over both Rhodes as an individual and the scholarship in general. Rhodes himself was a noted white supremacist, which led to widespread disdain over the selection process; as a South African politician, Rhodes refused to allow black Africans to apply for the scholarship. The Rhodes Trust was finally made to relent on black African applicants in 1991 when the African National Congress rose to power. Women, too, were banned from receiving the scholarship until 1976, when the British Parliament passed the Sex Discrimination Act that offered equality in all aspects of life, including education. Additionally, international rows have taken place over some American scholars lamenting the difference of education between America and Britain, although this controversy has largely gone by unnoticed by ambitious applicants.

https://www.jbhe.com/2016/12/a-record-year-for-african-american-rhodes-scholars/

In 1907 Alain LeRoy Locke, later a major philosopher and literary figure of the Harlem Renaissance, was selected as a Rhodes Scholar to study at Oxford University. It is generally believed that at the time of the award the Rhodes committee did not know that Locke was Black until after he had been chosen. It would be more than 50 years later, in 1962, until another African American would be named a Rhodes Scholar. Other African Americans who have won Rhodes Scholarships include Randall Kennedy of Harvard Law School, Kurt Schmoke, former mayor of Baltimore, and Franklin D. Raines, former director of the Office of Management and Budget and former CEO of Fannie Mae. In 1978 Karen Stevenson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the first African-American woman selected as a Rhodes Scholar.

https://aaregistry.org/story/the-rhodes-scholarship-and-african-america/

Alain Locke was the first African American to win a Rhodes scholarship in 1907, igniting a legacy of excellence that African American students would proudly carry on over the next century. In fact, over the past four decades, Black Americans have won a Rhodes scholarship almost each year. That’s a very interesting in light of the fact that Rhodes was known to be a “brutal racist.” Here is a 2014 list of America’s most gifted Black writers, educators, future doctors and change-makers that have utilized this scholarship to raise the bar of African American academic success:

*John Edgar Wideman (1963) Wideman was the second African American in history to be named a Rhodes scholar. Since graduating from Oxford University in 1966, he has written 20 books. Currently, Wideman is Asa Messer Professor and Professor of Africana Studies and English at Brown University.
*Robin S. Hadley (1984). She became the first African American female from the South and the third African-American female ever to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

*Susan Rice (1986). She serves as President Obama’s close adviser and the first African American woman U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The early stages of her prestigious career consist of earning a master’s and doctorate in philosophy from Oxford.

*Nenna Lynch (1992). She earned a master’s degree in social anthropology. She was also a collegiate athlete winning the NCAA 3,000 meter event in the 1992-1993 seasons. People Magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people honored the former investment banker in 1994. Today, Lynch is a a senior policy adviser to the deputy mayor for economic development, in New York City.

*Cory Booker (1992). The popular mayor of Newark and New Jersey senator not only has an impressive political resume, but he has an even more impressive academic history. After graduating from Stanford University with a bachelor’s in political science and a master’s degree in sociology, Booker earned a bachelor’s in modern history at Oxford in 1994 as a Rhodes Scholar. He continued his education at Yale Law School and graduated with a degree in 1997.

*Randal Pinkett (1994). Before he became the first African American to win season 4 of The Apprentice TV show, Pinkett was the first and only African-American from his alma mater, Rutgers University, to receive a Rhodes Scholarship. He earned a Master of Science degree in computer science from the University of Oxford in 1994. He earned another master’s of science in electrical engineering, MBA and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Currently, Pinkett is the president and CEO of BCT Partners, a multimillion-dollar consulting firm based in Newark, NJ, that specializes in program management, information technology and public policy.

[Demovictory9]

1. interesting

[Celerity]

2. It is Nnenna, not Nenna, Lynch nt

[pnwmom]

4. It's the difference between "black Africans" and "black African Americans."

They gave scholarships to a handful of African Americans before they finally gave their first to a black African.

From the first link:

The Rhodes Trust was finally made to relent on black African applicants in 1991 when the African National Congress rose to power.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Not just white, but Anglo-Saxon supremacist ...

He helped get the Boer War going, hoping to drive the Afrikaans (Dutch) settlers out of SA. He believed the UK, US, Australia, and (white) SA should rightfully decide the course of the world, and hoped they would form a political alliance to do so.

[ritapria]

6. If We had a US equivalent

They would call it the George Wallace Scholarship ……….

[Recursion]

7. Wait: it was *that* Rhodes? Rhodesia Rhodes?

WTF? How have they not changed that name yet?

[BlueWI]

8. White supremacy ran deep in higher education.

Still does. I occasionally recommend students for this award, and the problematic legacy remains.