Bunche served on the US delegation to both theDumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944 andUnited Nations Conference on International Organization in 1945 that drafted the UN charter. He then served on the American delegation to the first session of theUnited Nations General Assembly in 1946 and joined the UN as head of theTrusteeship Department, beginning a long series of troubleshooting roles and responsibilities related to decolonization. In 1948, Bunche became an acting mediator for the Middle East, negotiating an armistice between Egypt and Israel. For this success he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.
Bunche continued to serve at the UN, working on crises in the Sinai (1956), the Congo (1960), Yemen (1963), Cyprus (1964) and Bahrain in 1970, reporting directly to the UN Secretary-General. He chaired study groups dealing with water resources in the Middle East. In 1957, he was promoted toUnder-Secretary-General forspecial political affairs, having prime responsibility for peacekeeping roles. In 1965, Bunche supervised the cease-fire following the war between India and Pakistan. He retired from the UN in June 1971, dying six months later.[1]
In 1963, he was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom by PresidentJohn F. Kennedy.[2] At the UN, Bunche gained such fame thatEbony magazine proclaimed him perhaps the most influential African American of the first half of the 20th century and "[f]or nearly a decade, he was the most celebrated African American of his time both [in the US] and abroad."[3]
Bunche was born inDetroit,Michigan, in 1904 and baptized at the city'sSecond Baptist Church. When Ralph was a child, his family moved toToledo, 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 toAlbuquerque, 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,[4] and his uncle shortly thereafter.[5] 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.[6]
In 1918, Lucy Taylor Johnson moved with the two Bunche grandchildren to theSouth Central neighborhood of Los Angeles.[4][5][7]
Bunche earned a master's degree inpolitical science in 1928 and a doctorate in 1934, while he was already teaching in the Department of Political Science atHoward University, ahistorically black college.[4] 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. Bunche's 1934 dissertation, "French Administration in Togoland and Dahomey", won the Toppan Prize for the best dissertation on comparative politics in the Department of Government at Harvard University.[9] The dissertation examined the mandates system of the League of Nations, arguing that the system was indistinguishable from formal empire.[4][10]
He published his first book,A World View of Race, in 1936, arguing that "race is a social concept which can be and is employed effectively to rouse and rationalize emotions [and] an admirable device for the cultivation of group prejudices." In 1940, Bunche served as the chief research associate to Swedish sociologistGunnar Myrdal's landmark study of racial dynamics in the U.S.,An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.[13]
For more than two decades (1928–1950), Bunche served as chair of the Department of Political Science atHoward University, where he also taught. Furthermore, he contributed to theHoward School of International Relations with his work regarding the effect racism and imperialism had on global economic systems and international relations.[14] He was also inducted intoPi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society in 1956.[15]
Ralph Bunche (top right) and members of his staff during WW2. He was the head of the Africa Research Section of the Office of Strategic Services. Declassified.
In 1941–43, Bunche worked in theResearch and Analysis Branch (R&A) of theOffice of Strategic Services (OSS), the wartime intelligence service, as a senior social analyst on Colonial Affairs. In 1943, he was transferred from the OSS to theState Department. He was appointed Associate Chief of the Division of Dependent Area Affairs underAlger Hiss. With Hiss, Bunche became one of the leaders of theInstitute of Pacific Relations (IPR). He participated in the preliminary planning for the United Nations at theSan Francisco Conference of 1945. In 2008, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration released a 51-pagePDF of his OSS records, which is available online.[18]
Near the close of World War II in 1944, Bunche took part in planning for the United Nations at theDumbarton Oaks Conference, held in Washington, D.C. He was an adviser to the U.S. delegation for theCharter Conference of the United Nations held in 1945, when the governing document was drafted. Together with First LadyEleanor Roosevelt, Bunche was instrumental in the creation and adoption of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Bunche urged African Americans to take UN positions. "Negroes ought to get busy and prepare to obtain some of the jobs in the United Nations' set-up," he counseled. "There are going to be all kinds of jobs and Negroes should attempt to get jobs on all levels. Some organization should be working on this now."[19]
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 theUN 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.
Bunche was instrumental in ending colonialism.[according to whom?] His work to end colonialism began early in his academic career, during which time he developed into a leading scholar and expert of the impact of colonialism on subjugated people, and developed close relationships with many anti-colonial leaders and intellectuals from the Caribbean and Africa, in particular during his field research and his time at the London School of Economics. Bunche characterized economic policies in colonies and mandates as exploitative, and argued that the colonial powers misrepresented the nature of their rule.[9] He argued thatPermanent Mandates Commission needed expanded powers to investigate how the mandates were governed.[9]
Bunche's work on decolonization was influenced by the work ofRaymond Leslie Buell. However, Bunche disagreed with Buell on the relative merits of British and French colonial rule. Bunche argued that British rule was not more progressive than its French counterpart, claiming that it was characterized by paternalism at best and white supremacy at worst.[9] At a speech inCleveland, Bunche said: "The modern world has come to the realisation that there is a great moral issue involved in the perpetuation of the colonial system."[20]
HistorianSusan Pedersen describes Bunche as the "architect" of the United Nations' trusteeship regime.[9] Bunche was a principal author of the chapters in the UN charter on non-self-determining territories and trusteeship.[21] He was later head of the Trusteeship Division of the UN.[21]
Beginning in 1947, Bunche was involved with trying to resolve theArab–Israeli conflict and the1948 Palestine war. He served as assistant to theUnited Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and thereafter as the principal secretary of theUN Palestine Commission. In 1948, he traveled to the Middle East as the chief aide toSweden's CountFolke Bernadotte, who had been appointed by the UN to mediate the conflict. These men chose the island ofRhodes for their base and working headquarters. In September 1948, Bernadotte was assassinated inJerusalem by members of the underground JewishLehi group, which was led byYitzhak Shamir and referred to its members as terrorists[22] and admitted to having carried out terrorist attacks.[23]
Ralph Bunche with Israeli Prime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion, 12 December 1948
Following the assassination, Bunche became the UN's chief mediator; he conducted all future negotiations on Rhodes. The representative for Israel wasMoshe 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 the1949 Armistice Agreements, Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.[24][6]
Bunche continued to work for the United Nations, mediating in other strife-torn regions, includingthe Congo,Yemen,Kashmir, andCyprus. Bunche was appointedUnder-Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1968. While at the UN, Bunche forged a close bond with his friend and colleague, AmbassadorCharles W. Yost, with whom he had worked at the UN founding conference.
Bunche was actively involved in movements for black liberation in his pre-United Nations days, including through leadership positions with various civil rights organizations and as one of the leading scholars on the issue of race in the US and colonialism abroad. During his time at the United Nations, Bunche remained a vocal supporter of the USCivil Rights Movement despite his activities being somewhat constrained by the codes governing international civil servants. He participated in the 1963March on Washington, whereMartin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, and also, marching side by side with King, in theSelma to Montgomery march in 1965, which contributed to passage of the landmarkVoting Rights Act of 1965 and federal enforcement of voting rights.[25] As a result of his activism in the pre-war period, Bunche was a topic of discussion in theHouse Un-American Activities Committee. However, he was never a communist or Marxist, and indeed came under very heavy attack from the pro-Soviet press during his career.[26]
Bunche lived in theKew Gardens neighborhood ofQueens, New York, in a home purchased with his Nobel Prize money, from 1953 until his death.[27] Like many otherpeople 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 theWest Side Tennis Club in theForest Hills neighborhood of Queens.[28] 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.[5] During his UN career, Bunche turned down appointments from presidents Harry Truman and John Kennedy, because of theJim Crow laws still in effect in Washington, D.C. Historian John Hope Franklin credits him with "creating a new category of leadership among African-Americans" due to his unique ability "to take the power and prestige he accumulated...to address the problems of his community."[6]
Bunche denounced theWatts riots, which led to a critique from theblack power movement. He took the critique seriously and following his daughter's suicide came to sympathize with the riots, calling them a violent rejection of unjust authority.[29]
While teaching at Howard University in 1928, Bunche met Ruth Harris, who was a first-grade teacher in Washington, D.C.[30] They later started seeing each other and married 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).[11] His grandson,Ralph J. Bunche III, is the general secretary of theUnrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, an international membership organization established to facilitate the voices of unrepresented and marginalised nations and peoples worldwide.
On October 9, 1966, their daughter Jane Bunche Pierce fell or jumped from the roof of her apartment building inRiverdale, Bronx; her death was believed to besuicide. She left no note. She and her husband Burton Pierce, aCornell alumnus and labor relations executive, had three children. Their apartment was on the first floor of the building.[31]
Bunche resigned from his position at the UN due to ill health, but this was not announced, asSecretary-GeneralU Thant hoped he would be able to return soon. His health did not improve, and Bunche died December 9, 1971, from complications ofheart disease,kidney disease, anddiabetes. He was 67.[5] He is buried inWoodlawn Cemetery inthe Bronx, New York City.
On February 11, 1972, the site of his birth in Detroit was listed as aMichigan Historic Site. His widow, Ruth Bunche attended the unveiling of a historical marker on April 27, 1972.[38]
The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies atCity University of New York, engages in research, graduate training, and public education in the fields of international studies and contemporary global problem-solving. It was founded in 1973 as the Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations and was renamed in 2001.[39]
In 1996, Howard University named its international affairs center, a physical facility and associated administrative programs, theRalph J. Bunche International Affairs Center. The center is the site of lectures and internationally oriented programming.[40]
Colgate University has the Ralph J. Bunche House which is a housing option available to juniors and seniors and can also be home to special interest groups.[41]
Bunche Hall, named in his honor, at UCLA. Abust of Dr. Bunche was erected at the entrance[42]
The Ralph J. Bunche Library of the U.S. Department of State is the oldest Federal government library. 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.
A neighborhood of West Oakland, home to Ralph Bunche High School,[43] is also known as "Ralph Bunche".
InGlasgow, Kentucky, theLiberty District-Ralph Bunche Community Center, to support community relations and cultural understanding, was named in his honor.
Bunche, Ralph (1936).A World View of Race. Bronze Booklet Series. Washington, D.C.: Associates in Negro Folk Education.ASINB004D6VKAQ.Reprint, Port Washington: Kennikat Press, 1968; excerpt in Ralph Bunche: Selected Speeches and Writings, edited by Charles P. Henry
Bunche, Ralph (1973). Grantham, Dewey W. (ed.).The Political Status of the Negro in the Age of FDR. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-08029-1.Edited with an Introduction by Dewey W. Grantham. A version of a Ralph Bunche 1941 research memorandum prepared for the Carnegie-Myrdal study,The Negro in America
^Myrdal, Gunnar (1944).An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1 ed.). New York and London: Harper & Bros.ISBN978-1-56000-857-6.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Vitalis, Robert (2015).White World Order, Black Power Politics: the Birth of American International Relations. Cornell University Press. pp. 83, 87.ISBN978-0-8014-5669-5.
^Asante, Molefi Kete (2002).100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. p. 345.ISBN978-1-57392-963-9.
^abc"Ralph Bunche House"(PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on June 12, 2009. RetrievedJanuary 2, 2014.
Raustiala, Kai. 2022.The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire. Oxford University Press.online scholarly review of this book
