Ralph Johnson Bunche was born on August 7, 1904, and died on December 9, 1971. He was an American political scientist, diplomat, and important leader in the mid-20th-century efforts to help countries gain independence and support civil rights in the United States. In 1950, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to settle a conflict between Arab and Israeli leaders in the late 1940s. He was the first Black person to win a Nobel Prize and the first person of African descent to receive this honor.

Bunche worked for the United Nations (UN), helping to create the organization and serving as under-secretary-general. In 1953, he briefly acted as the UN’s secretary-general. He played a key role in helping countries gain independence and in UN peacekeeping efforts.

Bunche was part of the American team that helped write the UN charter during the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944 and the United Nations Conference on International Organization in 1945. He later worked for the UN, leading the Trusteeship Department and handling many challenges related to helping countries gain independence. In 1948, he helped negotiate a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.

Bunche continued working for the UN, helping with crises in places like the Sinai (1956), the Congo (1960), Yemen (1963), Cyprus (1964), and Bahrain (1970). He reported directly to the UN Secretary-General and led studies on water resources in the Middle East. In 1957, he became under-secretary-general for special political affairs, managing peacekeeping efforts. In 1965, he oversaw a ceasefire after a war between India and Pakistan. He retired from the UN in June 1971 and passed away six months later.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy gave Bunche the Presidential Medal of Freedom. At the UN, he became very well-known. Ebony magazine said he was one of the most influential African Americans in the first half of the 20th century and called him the most celebrated African American of his time in the United States and around the world.

Early life and education

Ralph Bunche was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1904 and was baptized at the city's Second Baptist Church. 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 he followed them when they moved to New Mexico.

Because of the declining health of his mother and uncle, the family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1915. His mother, "a musically inclined woman who contributed much to what her son called a household 'bubbling over with ideas and opinions,' " died in 1917 from tuberculosis, and his uncle shortly thereafter. Thereafter, Bunche was raised by his maternal grandmother, Lucy Taylor Johnson, whom he credited with instilling in him his pride in his race and his self-belief.

In 1918, Lucy Taylor Johnson moved with the two Bunche grandchildren to the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Bunche was a brilliant student, a debater, athlete, and the valedictorian of his graduating class at Jefferson High School. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as a political science student and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa 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.

Academic career

Ralph Bunche earned a master's degree in political science in 1928 and a doctorate in 1934 while teaching at Howard University, a historically black college. At that time, it was common for doctoral students to begin teaching before finishing their research papers. Bunche was the first African American to receive a PhD in political science from an American university. His 1934 research paper, "French Administration in Togoland and Dahomey," won the Toppan Prize for the best work on comparative politics at Harvard University’s Department of Government. The paper studied the League of Nations’ mandates system, stating that the system was hard to tell apart from formal empire.

From 1936 to 1938, Bunche studied anthropology and did further research at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, at the London School of Economics, and later at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

He published his first book, A World View of Race, in 1936. The book argued that "race is a social concept used to stir and explain emotions and a useful tool for spreading group prejudices." In 1940, Bunche worked as the chief research assistant for Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal on An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, a major study about racial issues in the United States.

From 1928 to 1950, Bunche led the Department of Political Science at Howard University, where he also taught. He also helped the Howard School of International Relations by studying how racism and imperialism affected global economic systems and international relations. In 1956, he was inducted into Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society.

In 1950, Bunche was elected to the American Philosophical Society, becoming the first Black member since the society was founded in 1743. From 1953 to 1954, he was president of the American Political Science Association. He later served on the Board of Overseers at Harvard University (1960–1965), the board of the Institute of International Education, and as a trustee of Oberlin College, Lincoln University, and New Lincoln School.

World War II years

From 1941 to 1943, Bunche worked in the Research and Analysis Branch (R&A) of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a government group that gathered information during the war. He served as a senior social analyst focused on colonial matters. In 1943, he moved to the U.S. State Department and was named Associate Chief of the Division of Dependent Area Affairs, working under Alger Hiss. With Hiss, Bunche helped lead the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR). He took part in the early planning for the United Nations during the San Francisco Conference in 1945. In 2008, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration made public a 51-page PDF of Bunche’s OSS records, which is available online.

United Nations

Near the end of World War II in 1944, Bunche helped plan the United Nations at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington, D.C. He worked as an adviser for the U.S. team during the 1945 meeting where the United Nations' rules were written. With First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Bunche helped create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. He encouraged African Americans to apply for jobs at the United Nations, saying, "Negroes should prepare to get jobs in the United Nations' setup. There are many jobs, and Negroes should try to get them at all levels. Some group should work on this now."

According to the United Nations document "Ralph Bunche: Visionary for Peace," during his 25 years of work with the United Nations, he:

Bunche's efforts to end colonialism began early in his studies. He became an expert on how colonialism affected people in controlled areas. He worked closely with leaders from the Caribbean and Africa, especially during his research and time at the London School of Economics. He said colonial powers used unfair economic policies and did not tell the truth about their rule. He believed the Permanent Mandates Commission needed more power to check how areas were governed.

Bunche was influenced by Raymond Leslie Buell's work but disagreed with him about British and French colonial rule. He said British rule was not better than French rule, arguing it was at best controlled by outsiders and at worst based on white superiority. At a speech in Cleveland, Bunche said, "The modern world has realized that the colonial system involves a big moral issue."

Historian Susan Pedersen called Bunche the "architect" of the United Nations' system for managing areas not yet independent. He wrote the parts of the UN charter about non-self-governing territories and trusteeship. Later, he led the Trusteeship Division of the UN.

Starting in 1947, Bunche worked to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. He helped the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine and later served as the main secretary of the UN Palestine Commission. The committee visited Israel in 1947 and was welcomed by Jewish people. They also met secretly with Menachem Begin, who was wanted by the British. Bunche called this trip his "most exciting adventure in the Land of Israel."

In 1948, Bunche traveled to the Middle East as the top aide to Sweden's Count Folke Bernadotte, who was sent by the UN to help end the conflict. They used the island of Rhodes as their base. In September 1948, Bernadotte was killed in Jerusalem by members of the Jewish Lehi group, which was led by Yitzhak Shamir and called terrorists by others.

After Bernadotte's death, Bunche became the UN's main mediator, holding all future talks on Rhodes. Israel's representative, Moshe Dayan, later wrote that he and Bunche negotiated over a billiard table while playing pool. Bunche had local potters make special plates with each negotiator's name. When the agreement was signed, Bunche gave the plates as gifts. Dayan asked Bunche what would happen if no deal was reached, and Bunche replied, "I'd have broken the plates over your damn heads." For helping create the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.

Bunche continued working for the United Nations, helping in areas like the Congo, Yemen, Kashmir, and Cyprus. In 1968, he became Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. At the UN, he had a close relationship with Ambassador Charles W. Yost, whom he had worked with during the UN's founding.

Before joining the UN, Bunche supported movements for Black freedom, including leadership roles in civil rights groups and research on race in the U.S. and colonialism abroad. At the UN, he supported the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, even though his work was limited by rules for international workers. He joined the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, and marched with King in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, which helped pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Because of his earlier activism, Bunche was discussed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, but he was never a communist or Marxist. He faced criticism from pro-Soviet media during his career.

Bunche lived in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, New York, in a home bought with his Nobel Prize money from 1953 until his death. Like many people of color, he faced racism in the U.S. and sometimes in his own neighborhood. In 1959, he and his son, Ralph, Jr., were turned away from the West Side Tennis Club in Queens. After the story was reported, the club apologized and offered membership. Bunche refused, saying the offer was not based on fairness but only on his fame. During his UN work, he refused jobs from Presidents Harry Truman and John Kennedy because of Jim Crow laws in Washington, D.C. Historian John Hope Franklin said Bunche created a new kind of leadership for African Americans by using his influence to help his community.

Bunche criticized the Watts riots, which led to criticism from the Black Power movement. He took the criticism seriously and, after his daughter's death, came to understand the riots as a violent reaction to unfair treatment.

Marriage and family

In 1928, while teaching at Howard University, Ralph Bunche met Ruth Harris, who was a first-grade teacher in Washington, D.C. They began dating and married on June 23, 1930. The couple had three children: Joan Harris Bunche (1931–2015), Jane Johnson Bunche (1933–1966), and Ralph J. Bunche, Jr. (1943–2016). His grandson, Ralph J. Bunche III, served as the former general secretary of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, an international group that helps unrepresented and marginalized nations and peoples speak out.

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

Death

Bunche left his job at the UN because of poor health, but this was kept secret because Secretary-General U Thant hoped he would recover and return soon. His health did not improve, and Bunche died on December 9, 1971, because of problems from heart disease, kidney disease, and diabetes. He was 67 years old. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, located in the Bronx, New York City.

Honors

• In 1949, he received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.
• In 1950, he was given the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to help resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in Palestine.
• In 1951, Bunche was honored with the Silver Buffalo Award by the Boy Scouts of America for his work with scouting and his positive influence on the world.
• In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante added Ralph Bunche to his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
• In 2004, Ralph Bunche was honored after his death with the William J. Donovan Award from the OSS Society.
• A scholarship at UCLA was named after him. The Ralph Bunche Committee, part of the UCLA Alumni Association's Alumni Scholars Club, is also named for him.
• A scholarship at Colby College was named after him.
• In 1963, Bunche was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was the first person to receive this medal with distinction.
• On February 11, 1972, the place where he was born in Detroit was listed as a Michigan Historic Site. His wife, Ruth Bunche, attended the ceremony where a historical marker was unveiled on April 27, 1972.
• The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at City University of New York does research, trains graduate students, and teaches the public about international studies and global issues. It was created in 1973 as the Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations and was renamed in 2001.
• On January 12, 1982, the United States Postal Service released a 20¢ postage stamp in his honor as part of the Great Americans series.
• In 1996, Howard University named its international affairs center, including a building and programs, the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center. The center hosts lectures and international events.
• Colgate University has the Ralph J. Bunche House, a living option for juniors and seniors and a place for special interest groups.
• At UCLA, a building named Bunche Hall honors him. A statue of Dr. Bunche stands at the entrance.
• The Ralph J. Bunche Library of the U.S. Department of State is the oldest library in the federal government. It was started by Thomas Jefferson in 1789 and renamed in 1997. It is located in the Harry S. Truman Building, the main office of the State Department.
• A neighborhood in West Oakland, home to Ralph Bunche High School, is also called "Ralph Bunche."
• Elementary schools in Midland, Texas; Markham, Illinois; Flint, Michigan; Detroit, Michigan; Ecorse, Michigan; Canton, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Carson, California; Metairie, Louisiana; Anne Arundel County, Maryland; and New York City are named after him. High schools in West Oakland, California, and King George County, Virginia (Ralph Bunche High School) are also named for him.
• The Dr. Ralph J. Bunche Peace and Heritage Center, his childhood home with his grandmother, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Landmarks (HCM #159). The building has been restored and is now a museum and community center.
• In Glasgow, Kentucky, the Liberty District-Ralph Bunche Community Center, which supports community relations and cultural understanding, is named after him.
• Ralph Bunche Park in New York City is named for him. It is located across First Avenue from the United Nations headquarters.
• Near Fort Myers, Florida, historically Black beaches from the segregation era were named Bunche Beach.
• The neighborhood of Bunche Park in Miami Gardens, Florida, is named in his honor.
• Ralph Bunche Road in Nairobi, Kenya, is named after him.
• Bunche Park in Fort Worth, Texas, was named for him in 1954.

Selected bibliography

• Bunche, Ralph (1936). A World View of Race. Bronze Booklet Series. Published by Associates in Negro Folk Education in Washington, D.C. ASIN B004D6VKAQ. Reprinted in 1968 by Kennikat Press in Port Washington. This work is also included as an excerpt in Ralph Bunche: Selected Speeches and Writings, edited by Charles P. Henry.

• Bunche, Ralph (1973). The Political Status of the Negro in the Age of FDR, edited and introduced by Dewey W. Grantham. Published by the University of Chicago Press in Chicago. ISBN 978-0-226-08029-1. This book is based on a 1941 research memorandum by Ralph Bunche for the Carnegie-Myrdal study The Negro in America.

• Bunche, Ralph (2005). A Brief and Tentative Analysis of Negro Leadership, edited and introduced by Jonathan Scott Holloway. Published by New York University Press in New York. ISBN 978-0-8147-3684-5. This work is a version of The Negro in America.

• Edgar, Robert R., editor (1992). An African American in South Africa: The Travel Notes of Ralph J. Bunche, September 28, 1937 – January 1, 1938. Published by Ohio University Press in Athens. ISBN 978-0-8214-1394-4.

• Henry, Charles P., editor (1995). Ralph J. Bunche: Selected Speeches and Writings. Published by the University of Michigan Press in Ann Arbor. ISBN 978-0-472-10589-2.