Everything about Ralph Bunche totally explained
Dr.
Ralph Johnson Bunche (
August 7,
1903 –
December 9,
1971) was an
American political scientist and
diplomat who received the
1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in
Palestine. He was the first
person of color to be so honored in the history of the Prize. He was involved in formation and administration of the
United Nations. In 1963, he received the
Medal of Freedom from President
John F. Kennedy.
Early life and education
Bunche was born in
Detroit, Michigan to an
African-American family; his father was a
barber, his mother an amateur
musician. They moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, when he was a child to improve his parents' health. His parents died soon after, and he was raised in
Los Angeles by his grandmother.
Bunche was a brilliant student, a
debater, and the
valedictorian of his graduating class at Jefferson High School. He attended the
University of California, Los Angeles and graduated in
1927 -- again as the valedictorian of his class. Using the money his community raised for his studies, and a scholarship from the University, he studied at
Harvard. There he earned a
master's degree in political science in 1928 and a
doctorate in 1934, though he was already teaching in
Howard University's Department of Political Science. It was typical then for doctoral candidates to start teaching before completion of their dissertations.
Career
Bunche chaired the Department of Political Science at Howard University from 1928 until 1950, where he taught generations of students. He lived in the
Brookland neighborhood of
Washington, D.C., and was a member of the
American Federation of Teachers affiliate at Harvard.
"Throughout his career, Bunche has maintained strong ties with education. He chaired the Department of Political Science at Howard University from 1928 until 1950; taught at Harvard University from 1950 to 1952; served as a member of the New York City Board of Education (1958-1964), as a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University (1960-1965), as a member of the Board of the Institute of International Education, and as a trustee of Oberlin College, Lincoln University, and New Lincoln School."
In 1936 Bunche authored a pamphlet entitled
A World View of Race. In it Bunche wrote: "And so class will some day supplant race in world affairs. Race war will then be merely a side-show to the gigantic
class war which will be waged in the big tent we call the world." In 1936-40 Bunche served as contributing editor of the journal
Science and Society: A Marxian Quarterly.
World War II years
Bunche spent time during
World War II in the
Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor of the
CIA) as senior social analyst on Colonial Affairs before joining the
State Department. In 1943 Bunche went to the
State Department where he became associate chief of the division of dependent area affairs under
Alger Hiss. He became, with Hiss, one of the leaders of the
Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR).
He participated in the preliminary planning for the
United Nations at the
San Francisco Conference of
1945.
Work with the United Nations
At the close of the second World War, Bunche was active in preliminary planning for the United Nations (Dumbarton Oaks Conversations held in Washington D.C. in 1944). He was also an adviser to the U.S. delegation for the "Charter Conference" of the United Nations held in 1945. Additionally, he was closely involved in drafting the charter of the United Nations. Ralph Bunche along with Eleanor Roosevelt were considered instrumental in the creation and adoption of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.
According to the United Nations document "Ralph Bunche: Visionary for Peace," during his 25 years of service to the United Nations he
...championed the principle of equal rights for everyone, regardless of race or creed. He believed in “the essential goodness of all people, and that no problem in human relations is insoluble”. Through the UN Trusteeship Council, Bunche readied the international stage for an unprecedented period of transformation, dismantling the old colonial systems in Africa and Asia, and guiding scores of emerging nations through the transition to independence in the post-war era.
Palestine and Nobel Peace Prize
Beginning in 1947, Bunche was involved with the
Arab-Israeli conflict. He served as assistant to the
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and thereafter as the principal secretary of the U.N. Palestine Commission. In 1948 he traveled to the
Middle East as the chief aide to Count
Folke Bernadotte, who had been appointed by the U.N. to mediate the conflict. In September, Bernadotte was assassinated by members of the underground Jewish group,
Lehi. Bunche became the U.N.'s chief mediator and concluded the task with the signing of the
1949 Armistice Agreements, the work for which he received the Peace Prize and many other honors.
He continued to work for the United Nations, mediating in other strife-torn regions including
The Congo,
Yemen,
Kashmir, and
Cyprus, eventually rising to the position of
undersecretary-general in
1968.
In 1950, Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Prominent African-American
As a prominent
African-American, Bunche was an active and vocal supporter of the
civil rights movement, though he never actually held a titled position in one of the movement's major organizations.
(External Link
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Bunche was a resident of the
Kew Gardens neighborhood of
Queens,
New York.
Bunche died in 1971 and is buried in
Woodlawn Cemetery in
The Bronx. He was 68.
Honors
In 1951 Bunche was awarded the Silver Buffalo Award by the National
Boy Scouts of America for his work in scouting and positive impact for the world.
On January 12, 1982, as pictured here, a
United State postage stamp was issued in memory of Mr. Bunche. A
bust of Ralph Bunche, an the entrance to
Bunche Hall, overlooks the
Sculpture Garden at
UCLA.
The Ralph J. Bunche Library of the U.S. Department of State is the oldest Federal government library. It was founded by the first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson in 1789. It was dedicated to and renamed the Ralph J. Bunche Library on May 5, 1997. It is located in the Harry S. Truman Building, the main State Department headquarters.
Ralph Bunche Park is in
New York City, across First Avenue from the
United Nations headquarters. The neighborhood of
Bunche Park in the city of
Miami Gardens Florida, was named in honor of Mr. Bunche. Ralph J. Bunche also had elementary schools named after him in
Ecorse, Michigan;
Canton, Georgia;
Miami, Florida; and
New York City.
Dr. Ralph J. Bunche Peace and Heritage Center, boyhood home with his grandmother in the
Central Avenue Neighborhood of Los Angeles, has been listed on the
National Register of Historic Places and City of
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Landmarks. The owner of the property,
Dunbar Economic Development Corporation, Los Angeles, operates the home as a rehabilitated interpretive Museum and Community Center to promote peaceful interaction of all groups within
South Central Los Angeles. The period of significance of the historic house museum is from the 1920s. The property was fully restored between
2002 and 2004, winning a
Los Angeles Conservancy Award for Historic Preservation, 2006.
Design Aid Architects was the Historic Preservation Consultant for the property rehabilitation.
Quotes
- "May there be, in our time, at long last, a world at peace in which we, the people, may for once begin to make full use of the great good that's in us."
- "I...believe in the essential goodness of my fellow man, which leads me to believe that no problem of human relations is ever insoluble."
Selected bibliography by Bunche
Bunche, Ralph, A World View of Race. (Bronze Booklet Series. Washington, D.C.: Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1936) [Reprint,Port Washington, NY, Kennikat Press, 1968; excerpt in Ralph Bunche: Selected Speeches and Writings, edited by Charles P. Henry]
Bunche, Ralph. The Political Status of the Negro in the Age of FDR, edited with an Introduction by Dewey W. Grantham. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973) [Aversion of a Ralph Bunche 1941 research memorandum prepared for the Carnegie-Myrdal Study, "The Negro in America"]
Bunche, Ralph. A Brief and Tentative Analysis of Negro Leadership, edited with an Introduction by Jonathan Scott Holloway (NY, New York University Press, 2005) [Aversion of "The Negro in America"]
Edgar, Robert R., ed. An African American in South Africa: The Travel Notes of Ralph J. Bunche, 28 September 1937 - 1 January 1938. (Athens, Ohio University Press, 1992)
Henry, Charles P., ed. Ralph J. Bunche: Selected Speeches and Writings. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995)Further Information
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