Ralph J. Bunche

Ralph J. Bunche. . , Local Kid to Global Dignitary , Ralph Johnson Bunche (1904-1971) was an esteemed African American scholar and human rights activist who also had a brilliant career as a diplomat and international civil servant. Although Bunche is best remembered for being the first African American to win a Nobel Peace Prize, he also had a profound influence on the world in many other ways. A sign now marks the clapboard house at 1221 East 40th Place that was his home, a couple blocks east of Central Avenue. When his family lived there in the early 1900s, the neighborhood was predominantly white. Despite facing racial discrimination, Bunche's elders persisted in ensuring he, his sister, and his cousins received a solid education in local schools so that they could make something of themselves. , Humble Beginnings , Born in Detroit, Michigan, Bunche lived there as a boy, as well as in Ohio and New Mexico. After his mother died and his father disappeared, he and his sister moved to Los Angeles from Albuquerque with their maternal grandmother and other relatives in 1917 to start life anew. Bunche excelled academically and was the valedictorian of his graduating class at Thomas Jefferson High School, located two blocks east of his home. At UCLA, he continued to stand out in academics and sports; he graduated summa cum laude in 1927. Since his family was of modest means, Bunche held various jobs while in high school and worked as a janitor to supplement his UCLA scholarship. , Educator and Social Activist , Bunche earned a doctorate in political science and international relations from Harvard University in 1934. His studies resulted in the book A World View of Race, which focused on colonialism in Africa and international race relations, setting the foundation for his life's work. In the 1930s, Bunche taught at Howard and Harvard universities, and he became a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet," which the administration consulted on issues affecting minorities. Bunche helped found the National Negro Congress, whose aim was to advance the common interests of black and white workers. His collaboration was critical to the Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal's pivotal 1944 study about American race relations, An American Dilemma, which helped set the agenda for the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s. , International Peacemaker , During World War II, Bunche served as a senior advisor to the U.S. State Department and to the military on African colonial areas of strategic importance. In 1946, he began work at the United Nations, where he helped draft its mission and purpose statement. Bunche is probably best known for his U.N. work negotiating a ceasefire agreement to end the Arab-Israeli conflict that raged from 1948 to 1949 , an achievement for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. He was the first person of color to be so honored. Bunche received numerous other accolades in his lifetime, including a 1963 Presidential Medal of Freedom with Special Distinction awarded by President John F. Kennedy in recognition of his efforts in the Middle East. In December 1963, soon after Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson formally presented Bunche with the medal. , In the decades after winning the Nobel Prize, Bunche became one of the world's most revered public figures. UCLA recognized his accomplishments by naming a prominent academic building for him. Although Bunche's name is now infrequently cited in U.S. history books and popular culture, his legacy lives on in the U.N. and wherever people fight for equality, justice, and human dignity.