Two for the Fight

Rhodes scholarships for study at Oxford were four years old in 1907 when the Pennsylvania selection committee chose a Harvardman with top honors but a black skin. In hot protest. Southern winners bearded the trustees in London, but Empire Builder Cecil Rhodes had clearly provided that no one be "qualified or disqualified on account of his race or religious opinions." Off to Oxford went Alain Locke, the first U.S. Negro Rhodesman. who was a noted philosophy professor at Howard University before his death nine years ago. Not until last week had any other U.S. Negro won a Rhodes scholarship.

This year not one but two of 32 U.S. Rhodesmen are Negroes. Culled from 544 formidable candidates nominated by colleges across the country, they had to meet Cecil Rhodes's requirement that each of his scholars be "the best man for the world's fight." Few young men have already fought so well:

> John E. Wideman. 21. the son of a Pittsburgh waiter, is a senior majoring in English literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Wideman won the campus creative-writing prize, last month got his Phi Beta Kappa key. this year captained Penn's undefeated basketball team. Last week, hours after hurdling the Rhodes selection committee. Captain Wideman led Penn to victory over Vanderbilt topped his team's scoring with 18 points. His Oxford agenda: language and literature in order to teach college English.

> Joseph Stanley Sanders, 20, born in a south Los Angeles slum, is the son of a city garbage-truck driver. Stan's big brother Ed chose one way up--boxing--and died after being knocked out in his ninth pro fight. Stan's way led to top marks at mostly Negro David Starr Jordan High School, thence to a full athletic scholarship at Whittier College, where his size (6 ft. 4 in.. 204 Ib.) and blinding speed (9.8 sec. for the 100-yd. dash) made him an All-America end in small-college football. He also kept A-minus grades in his political science major, was student-body president. Turning down pro football offers, Stan will pursue Oxford's famed "PPE" (philosophy, politics, economics), aims to become a lawyer. He is Whittier's first Rhodes scholar.

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