Ralph Bunche

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Ralph Johnson Bunche

Born (1903-08-07)August 7, 1903
Detroit, Michigan
Died December 9, 1971(1971-12-09) (aged 68)
New York City
Known for Mediation in Palestine, Nobel Peace Prize recipient
Religion Christianity
Signature

Ralph Johnson Bunche (/bʌntʃ/; August 7, 1903 (disputed) or 1904[1][2][3][4]  – December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine.[2] He was the first African American and person of color to be so honored in the history of the prize.[5] He was involved in the formation and administration of the United Nations. In 1963, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy.

For more than two decades, Bunche served as chair of the Department of Political Science at Howard University (1928 to 1950), where he also taught generations of students. He served as a member of the Board of Overseers of his alma mater, 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.

Early life and education

Bunche's childhood home with his grandmother in South Los Angeles.

Bunche was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1903 or 1904 and baptized at the city's Second Baptist Church. His father, Fred, was a barber, while his mother, Olive Agnes (née Johnson), was an amateur musician, from a "large and talented family."[6] Her siblings included Charlie and Ethel Johnson.[6]

His maternal grandfather, Thomas Nelson Johnson, was the son of Eleanor Madden and her husband; she was the daughter of an African-American slave mother and Irish planter father. Johnson, who graduated from Shurtleff College in Alton, Illinois in 1875, also taught there. That September he married Lucy Taylor, one of his students.[6]

Fred Bunche is believed to have had Bunch and other ancestors who were established as free people of color in Virginia before the American Revolution. The Bunch/Bunche surname was extremely rare. In 2012 researchers published evidence showing that Bunch male descendants can be traced through historical records and y-DNA analysis to John Punch, an African indentured servant sentenced to life service in 1640, and considered to be the first slave in Virginia.[7] President Barack Obama is also believed to be among Bunch's many descendants, through his mother's family.[7] Several generations of the Bunch men, free people of color, married white women from the British Isles, who were free.[8]

When Ralph was a child, his family moved to Toledo, Ohio, where his father looked for work. They returned to Detroit in 1909 after his sister Grace was born, with the help of their maternal aunt, Ethel Johnson. Their father did not live with the family again after Ohio and had not been "a good provider," but followed them when they moved to New Mexico.[6]

In 1915, together with Ralph's maternal grandmother, Lucy Taylor Johnson, they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the health of his mother and her brother Charlie Johnson, who both suffered from tuberculosis. His mother died in 1917 and Charlie committed suicide three months later.[6] Ralph Bunche was 13.

In 1918 Lucy Taylor Johnson moved with the Bunche grandchildren to the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles, which was then mostly white.[6][9][10] Fred Bunche later remarried, and Ralph never saw him again.[6]

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 (UCLA), and graduated summa cum laude in 1927 as the valedictorian of his class. Using the money his community raised for his studies and a graduate scholarship at Harvard University, he earned a doctorate in political science.

To help with his living expenses while at Harvard, Bunche sought a job at a local bookstore. The owner offered him a part-time job, and Bunche ran the store to his employer's satisfaction. One day the owner called him into the office and said, "Folks tell me you're a Negro. I don't give a damn, but are you?" Bunche asked, "What did you think?" and the owner said, "I couldn't see you clear enough." Bunche was multiracial, and showed his European and African ancestry.[10]

Bunche earned a master's degree in political science in 1928 and a doctorate in 1934, while he was already teaching in Howard University's Department of Political Science. At the time, it was typical for doctoral candidates to start teaching before completion of their dissertations. He was the first African American to gain a PhD in political science from an American university. He published his first book, World View of Race, in 1936.[6] From 1936 to 1938, Ralph Bunche conducted postdoctoral research in anthropology at the London School of Economics (LSE), and later at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Career

Ralph Bunche, painting by Betsy Graves Reyneau, c.1940-1960s

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."[11]

In 1936 during the Great Depression, Bunche became concerned about issues of social class and economic inequality. He wrote a pamphlet entitled "A World View of Race." In it, Bunche said: "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." From 1936 to 1940, Bunche served as contributing editor of the journal Science and Society: A Marxian Quarterly, which published articles from the Left.

World War II years

During World War II, Bunche worked in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the CIA, as a senior social analyst on Colonial Affairs. In 1943, he joined the State Department. He was appointed Associate Chief of the Division of Dependent Area Affairs under Alger Hiss. With Hiss, Bunche became 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

Near the close of World War II in 1944, Bunche took part in planning for the United Nations at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, held in Washington, D.C. He was an adviser to the U.S. delegation for the "Charter Conference" of the United Nations held in 1945, when the governing document was drafted. Ralph Bunche, along with Eleanor Roosevelt, was considered instrumental in the creation and adoption of the UN 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 a period of rapid 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."

Arab-Israeli conflict and Nobel Peace Prize

Beginning in 1947, Bunche was involved with trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. He served as assistant to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and thereafter as the principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission. In 1948, he traveled to the Middle East as the chief aide to Sweden's Count Folke Bernadotte, who had been appointed by the UN to mediate the conflict. These men chose the island of Rhodes for their base and working headquarters. In September 1948, Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem by members of the underground Jewish Lehi group .

Following the assassination, Bunche became the UN's chief mediator; he conducted all future negotiations on Rhodes. The representative for Israel was Moshe Dayan; he reported in memoirs that much of his delicate negotiation with Bunche was conducted over a billiard table while the two were shooting pool. Optimistically, Bunche commissioned a local potter to create unique memorial plates bearing the name of each negotiator. When the agreement was signed, Bunche awarded these gifts. After unwrapping his, Dayan asked Bunche what might have happened if no agreement had been reached. "I'd have broken the plates over your damn heads," Bunche answered. For achieving the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Dr. Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize,[12] in 1950.[13] He continued to work for the United Nations, mediating in other strife-torn regions, including the Congo, Yemen, Kashmir, and Cyprus. Bunche was appointed as undersecretary-general in 1968.

Civil rights movement

The grave of Ralph Bunche
Bunche was an active and vocal supporter of the civil rights movement. He participated in the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, and also in the Selma to Montgomery, Alabama march, which contributed to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 and federal enforcement of voting rights.[14]

Bunche lived in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, New York, from 1953 until his death.[15] Like many other people of color, Bunche continued to struggle against racism across the United States and sometimes in his own neighborhood. In 1959, he and his son, Ralph, Jr., were denied membership in the West Side Tennis Club in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens. After the issue was given national coverage by the press, the club offered the Bunches an apology and invitation of membership. The official who had rebuffed them resigned. Bunche refused the offer, saying it was not based on racial equality and was an exception based only on his personal prestige.[9]

Marriage and family

While teaching at Howard University in 1928, Bunche met Ruth Harris as one of his students. They later started seeing each other and married June 23, 1930. The couple had three children: Joan Harris Bunche (b. 1931), Jane Johnson Bunche (b. 1933) (later married to Burton Pierce), and Ralph J. Bunche, Jr. (b. 1943).[6]

On October 9, 1966, their daughter Jane Bunche Pierce fell or jumped from the roof of her Riverdale, Bronx apartment building; her death was believed to be suicide.[6] She left no note. Her husband Burton Pierce, a Cornell University alumnus, was a labor relations executive, and they had three children. Their apartment was on the first floor of the building.[16]

Several of Bunche's residences are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These are summarized in the following table:

Name Location Years of Residence Notes
Ralph J. Bunche House Los Angeles, CA 1919?-1928? Also a Los Angeles Historical-Cultural Monument.
Ralph Bunche House (Washington, D.C.) Washington, DC 1941-1947 Built for Bunche.[17]
Parkway Village (Queens) Queens, New York, NY 1947-1952 Apartment complex built for UN employees.[17]
Ralph Johnson Bunche House Queens, New York, NY 1952-1971 Also a National Historic Landmark and a New York City designated landmark.[17]

Death

Bunche resigned from his position at the UN due to ill health, but this was not announced as Secretary-General U Thant hoped he would be able to return soon. His health did not improve, and Bunche died December 9, 1971, at age 68. He was survived by his wife, daughter Joan, son Ralph, and the three Pierce grandchildren.[9] His wife later enjoyed three additional grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.[1] He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

Honors

A bust of Ralph Bunche, Bunche Hall, UCLA.

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 is in us."[25]
  • "There are no warlike peoples – just warlike leaders."[26]
  • "I...believe in the essential goodness of my fellow man, which leads me to believe that no problem of human relations is ever insoluble."[13]

Selected bibliography

  • Bunche, Ralph, A World View of Race. (Bronze Booklet Series. Washington, D.C.: Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1936) [Reprint, Port Washington: 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) [A version 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) [A version 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)

See also

  • List of African American firsts
  • Black Nobel Prize laureates

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Urquhart, Brian (19 October 1998). Ralph Bunche: an American life. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-393-31859-3. Retrieved 13 October 2011. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Nobel Peace Prize 1950– Ralph Bunche". Nobelprize.org. 1950. Retrieved November 30, 2010. 
  3. ↑ Bunche Charter School. Greendot.org (1904-08-07). Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
  4. ↑ Google Timelines. Google.com. Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
  5. ↑ William Greaves, Director (2001). Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (Television production). New York City: William Greaves Productions, Inc. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 "Ralph J. Bunche", Gale Cengage Learning, accessed 15 November 2012
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Paul C. Reed, Natalie D. Cottrill, Joseph B. Shumway, and Anastasia Harman, "Descent of the Bunch Family in Virginia and the Carolinas", 15 July 2012, Ancestry.com, accessed 14 November 2012
  8. ↑ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, 1995-2005. Note: Heinegg and other researchers have found that, as in the case of the Bunch descendants, most such free families were descended from unions of white women, free or indentured servants, with African men, free, indentured or slaves, as the colonial working class intermarried. Their children were free because of being born to free white women, under the colony's law of partus sequitur ventrem.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Robert D. McFadden (December 10, 1971). "Dr. Bunche of U.N., Nobel winner, Dies". New York Times (nytimes.com). Retrieved October 22, 2010. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Laurie J. Marzejka (August 29, 1997). "Michigan History: Dr. Ralph Bunche—from Detroit to the world stage". The Detroit News (detnews.com). Retrieved October 22, 2010. 
  11. ↑ Nobel Lectures for Peace 1926-1950, Nobel Foundation
  12. ↑ Asle Sveen Ralph Bunche: UN Mediator in the Middle East, 1948–1949 at the Wayback Machine (archived December 31, 2008). Nobelprize.org. 29 December 2006
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Benjamin Rivlin, "Vita: Ralph Johnson Bunche: Brief life of a champion of human dignity: 1903–1971", Harvard Magazine, Nov. 2003.
  14. ↑ "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dr. Ralph J. Bunche: Nobel Peace Prize Winners Whose Paths Converge", Black Collegian, 2005, Retrieved on 2011-08-03.
  15. ↑ Rimer, Sara. "From Queens Streets, City Hall Seems Very Distant", The New York Times, October 19, 1989. Accessed November 13, 2007.
  16. ↑ "Ralph Bunche's Daughter Falls to Death". The Park City Daily News (Bowling Green, Kentucky) (Google Newspapers). March 10, 1966. p. 3. Retrieved November 30, 2010. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 "Ralph Bunche House". New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Retrieved 2 January 2014. 
  18. ↑ NAACP Spingarn Medal
  19. ↑ "Ralph J Bunche Birthplace". Michigan State Housing Development Authority. Retrieved October 22, 2019. 
  20. ↑ Bunche's Tall Tales. UCLA Magazine. April 1, 2006. 
  21. ↑ "About the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center". Howard University. 2001. Retrieved November 30, 2010. 
  22. ↑ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. p. 345. ISBN 1-57392-963-8. 
  23. ↑
  24. ↑
  25. ↑ "Nobel Prize acceptance speech"
  26. ↑ Forbes, Dec. 7, 2007

Further reading

  • Ben-Dror, Elad (2012). The Mediator: Ralph Bunche and the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1947–1949. Ben Gurion Institute. 
  • Henry, Charles P. (1999). Ralph Bunche: Model Negro or American Other?. NY: New York University Press. ISBN 0814735827. 
  • Meyer, Edith Patterson (1978). In Search of Peace: The Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1901–1975. Nashville: Abdington. ISBN 0687189691. 
  • Rivlin, Benjamin, ed. (1990). Ralph Bunche: The Man and His Times. New York: Holmes & Meyer. ISBN 0841911452. 
  • Urquhart, Brian (1993). Ralph Bunche: An American Life. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0393035271. 

External links

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Political offices
Preceded by
Position Created		 Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
for Special Political Affairs
1961–1971 		Succeeded by
Brian Urquhart
1901–1925
1926–1950
1951–1975
1976–2000
2001–present
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