Ralph Bunche – Infinite Patience, Indomitable Will. His Struggle for Peace and Justice
A Unit of Study for Grades 9-12

Ralph Bunche – Infinite Patience, Indomitable Will. His Struggle for Peace and Justice . A Unit of Study for Grades 9-12

The UCLA-based National Center for History in the Schools has published a 180-page planning guide for teachers of grades 9–12 that follows Bunche's life and career. Infinite Patience, Indomitable Will: Ralph Bunche--His Struggle for Peace and Justice is presented to coincide with the centennial of the birth of Ralph Bunche, an African American who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951 for his work at the United Nations in brokering an Arab-Israeli armistice in 1949. Through the five lessons students will explore the life, accomplishments, and legacy of Ralph Bunche treat the young Bunche acquiring an education in Los Angeles and Cambridge, Mass; his early involvement with black political life in the United States; his role in ending the first Arab-Israeli War while working as the acting United Nations mediator; his U.N. work during the Congo crisis of 1960; and a review of his later years as well as his connections to the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

For more details and order form click here.

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The Unlearned Lessons of History: Ralph Bunche on Democracy and US Policy in the Middle East

By Professor Benjamin Rivlin

In 1950, Ralph Bunche, who had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for successfully mediating the first Arab-Israel war and whose centenary of his birth we are commemorating this year, with uncanny prescience described the predicament the United States finds itself in today as it tries to promote democracy in the Middle East. Bunche's comments about this US policy, most relevant for us today, were expressed in the following words extracted from the “Introduction” he wrote to the book The Near East and the Great Powers, edited by Richard N. Frey and published by the Harvard University Press in 1951. (The term “Near East” was more commonly used at the time than the “ Middle East ”, with which it is synonymous.) In this “Introduction”, excerpted by Dr. Benjamin Rivlin, co-chair of the Ralph Bunche Centenary Commemoration Committee, references to issues current when it was written in 1950 have been deleted.

Several points in regard to the Near East would seem to merit special consideration and concern by Americans…I think it vital to bear in mind that…the Near East remains a troubled area, and from the standpoint of the pattern of peace, it is still a danger spot. With regard to the aims and policies of the United States and the United Kingdom … it may certainly be doubted that their policies in the Near East are reaping, or for that matter are likely to reap in a time of crisis, any handsome dividends… I think it must be clear that neither the United States nor the United Kingdom commands any great popularity in the Near East … What does the United States …really seek in the Near East ? Are we seeking to find there or establish there another bastion of democracy, Western Style? Certainly the Near East is not that today and I do not know who would be prepared to prophesy that it is likely to become so in the reasonable future. Democracy, in our sense, is no strong force in that region, and so far as I can see there are no encouraging indications that it is likely to become such a force…

Then there is the real problem, the basic problem – thinking always in terms of American interests and the American approach – which is to be found in the realm of our relations with peoples and our attitudes toward them. With regard to our ability or perhaps inability to make an impact which nurtures understanding, which inspires mutual confidence and sympathy, the plain fact is, I think, that the United States – and probably the United Kingdom…has not shown an ability to establish a firm and sympathetic rapport with people such as those fund in the Near East….It may be that Americans…have not excelled in the task of winning friends and influencing people in a lasting way. This is especially true in areas such as the Near…East, areas in which there are to be found important differences in race, religion, and culture, and where there is poverty, widespread misery, economic underdevelopment, and social distress. Confronted with such challenges…we need to come to a realization that it is not necessary for people to do things as we do them, to live and think like us, to order their social and economic and political lives on an American model or something approaching it, in order for them to be good people, people worthy of our full respect and understanding.

Perhaps there is a certain unintentional, unconscious, cultural egotism, certainly not deliberate, something which may derive from what at time appears to be an excessive self-righteousness on our part, to be found in our approach to other peoples. We are usually too materialistic and we are frequently paternalistic toward them….

It is not enough for us to say finally as we say, and say with utmost sincerity, that we as Americans stand squarely for freedom, for the sanctity of human rights, for the dignity of man. We must find an effective way, and…translating these ideals into reality for millions, scores of millions, even hundreds of millions, of peoples in far-flung areas who have as yet not even come to have an understanding of the concepts themselves….

If we are to discharge our present immensely heavy and unparalleled responsibilities effectively and with dignity, we have first of all a vast job of self-education to undertake. Cultural understanding is something which properly must begin at home….

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Queens Museum of Art (QMA) Honours Life and Legacy of Nobel Laureate Ralph Bunche

Association of Former International Civil Servants, vol. XXXV, No.3, July 2004
By Keach Hagey

Queens Museum of Art's centennial exhibit on the life of longtime Queens resident Ralph Bunche, the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize, offers something that very few biographical exhibit ca: the fact that one of the central events in its subject's life took place inside the museum building.

It was November 29, 1947, and the museum was being used as a temporary headquarters for the fledgling United Nations. Bunche himself was in something of a temporary position as well, having been “borrowed” from his post at the U.S. State Department the year before by U.N. Secretary General Trygve Lie to handle problems of the world's people who had not yet attained self government.

This role became more specific in June of 1947, when Bunche was assigned to apply his negotiating skills to the confrontation between Arabs and Jews in Palestine . As the assistant to the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine , and then as principal secretary of the U.N. Palestine Commission, he drafted a plan for the partition of Palestine that established many of the borders between Israel and its Arab neighbors that we know today. It was ratified in the U.N. at its Queens headquarters that November day.

However, it was less the crafting of this plan than its breakdown – and subsequent repair that made Bunche an international celebrity. When, in early 1948, the plan was dropped and fighting broke out between Jews and Arabs, the U.N. appointed Count Folke Bernadotte as mediator and Bunche as his chief aide.

Four months later, Count Bernadotte was assassinated, and Bunche, who narrowly escaped death himself, jumped into the breach. After 11 months of virtually ceaseless negotiating, he obtained signatures on armistice agreements between Israel and the Arab States .

He returned home to a hero's welcome. New York gave him tickertape parade down Broadway. His native Los Angeles declared a “Ralph Bunche Day.” He was awarded the NAACO Spingarn Prize in 1949, over 30 honorary degrees in the next three years and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.

These events take up only a few feet of QMA's room long timeline of Bunche's life, which seems like an uninterrupted series of increasingly brilliant accomplishments from its beginning in 1903 to his death in 1971.

But the timeline is most effective in the way it places his life in its rather astounding historical context. Bunche was ascending the highest ranks of government decades before African Americans had the right to drink from the same drinking fountain as white people.

Bunche's work to help America solve its race problem earns its room in the exhibit, as do the two other themes of his life's work: peace in the Middle East and decolonization in Africa .

Although he was a major voice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, speaking just before Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington , he was generally considered a moderate, viewing segregation as an unreasoned phenomenon without scientific basis in biology or anthropology, and one that was incompatible with democracy.

Yet he and his family experienced discrimination here in queens, where they lived from 1947 until his death, first in the U.N. housing complex Parkway Village and later in a spacious Tudor Revival house in Kew Gardens. Most famously, Bunche's son was refused membership into the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills because of his race.

The QMA exhibit does a good job of keeping this context in view, but the essential story that it tells is not so much about a historical figure's triumph in the face of obstacles as bout the tangible ways that a great man becomes great.

Although several audio visual offer visitors narrated documentaries of the different periods of Bunche's life, the exhibit's strength is in its details, many which have never before been seen by the public.

The typed letter a young Bunche wrote to X.E.B. Dubois weeks before graduating at the top of his college class, asking for assistance in becoming a help to his race, offers a rare view of the combination of ambition and earnest devotion required for public life.

His Nobel Prize acceptance speech, with the first word of each page typed in the lower right corner of the previous one, reminds viewer of the simple mechanics behind the grand action of world leaders.

And a draft of Bunche's vehement denial letter to Senator Joseph McCarthy's House Committee on Un American Activities, heavily edited in pencil, is both a chilling artifact of Cold War paranoia and a testament to the power of reasoned words to overcome it.

With the political situation in the Middle East today looking as bad as it ever has, one leaves the exhibit wondering where the wielders of reasons words like Bunche have gone.

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Ralph Bunche: Resurrecting Greatness

Newsday, June 18, 2004

By Dennis Duggan

The Queens Museum of Art isn't easy to find - tucked away in a nondescript structure in the huge Flushing Meadows-Corona Park near the Unisphere, a relic of the World's Fair - but the effort is rewarded. The life of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche is being celebrated in a dazzling exhibition of 200 photographs, films and works of art.

It's about time. Bunche deserves all the laurels the museum is giving him and then some. He has fallen into the ash bins of history for no good reason, eclipsed ironically by his old friend Martin Luther King Jr., with whom he marched in Washington and in Selma, Ala.

In 1950, Bunche became the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize and though he roamed the world's trouble spots, especially the Middle East, as a peacekeeper, he lived for several years in Kew Gardens.

In a letter he wrote to then- Gov. Nelson Rockefeller on June 25, 1964, Bunche complained about a film being shown in the New York State Pavilion at the World's Fair.

"It is a lively and interesting film," he wrote, "but unless Ruth [his wife and mother of his three children] and I missed something, that film does not convey that there are any citizens of Negro origin in the State of New York . We caught only a fleeting glimpse of one Negro boy in a group of schoolchildren and that was all. No Negroes were shown at work, at play, in sports or on the stage."

Bunche also sent a telegram to then-Mayor John Lindsay when a February 1969 snowstorm made streets in Queens impassable. "As far as the United Nations is concerned," Bunche wrote, "I might as well be in the Alps ."

Even though Bunche's towering reputation as an international peacekeeper made him a familiar figure in all the world's capitals, he was equally at home in the United States - in Detroit, where he was born; in Los Angeles, where he went to UCLA and played basketball and football; in Washington, where he worked on behalf of the United Nations, and in Queens, where he lived in a modest home with his family until his death at New York Hospital in December 1971.

Brian Urquhart, his successor to the post of undersecretary general at the UN, wrote in his acclaimed 1993 biography "Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey" (W.W. Norton, $15.95), that a friend of his told him that the great jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie "never took advantage of who he was, and he never acted like a star. I don't know how stars get from here to there," the friend said, "but Dizzy walked down the street."

"That was a good description also of Ralph Bunche," writes Urquhart, who met Bunche in the mid-1940s.

When I walked into the museum a few days ago, I was met by two brilliant, young curators, Lauren Schloss and Franklin Sirmans, who walked with me through four galleries where, through artifacts, Bunche's life took on meaning.

There was that note he sent to Rockefeller; a pool table with a photo showing Bunche, a cigarette dangling from his month, hunched over the table with his cue ready to strike; the steamer trunk that accompanied him all over the globe, and, under glass, one of his treasured Borsalino hats.

And yes, there is a 1963 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award given to a civilian, with a sad note because President John F. Kennedy, who had approved the medal, was assassinated before he could present it. Instead, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the medal.

And, of course, hanging on a wall was a duplicate of the Nobel Peace Prize document that Bunche was given for his peacekeeping efforts in the Middle East and Africa - a prize Bunche at first refused because, as he said, he wasn't working at the UN to win prizes. His colleagues convinced him to go to Oslo, Norway , and accept the prize because it would enhance the reputation of the
organization.

I was introduced to Lawrence Finkelstein, an old friend of Bunche who was poring over a bound book containing handwritten letters from Bunche to his wife.

"Ralph Bunche," he said, "was an extraordinary man, and it's too bad that so many people seem to have forgotten him."

Not Finkelstein, however. He met Bunche in 1944; often dined with his family.

He also traveled with Bunche, once sharing a train sleeper from Washington to San Francisco , where Bunche told him to take the upper berth because "you're skinnier than I am."

Finkelstein has helped found a centenary committee to remind the rest of us that a truly great man who fought against racism and for world peace once walked among us.

And the Queens Museum ought to be congratulated for its work in bringing Bunche out of the shadows of history.

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A Man for all Seasons: Ralph Bunche

New York Amsterdam News, June 6, 2004
By Jimmie Briggs

Any museum exhibition which offers visitors the opportunity to shoot billiards as long as the sticks are returned to a wall rack is an atypical one, but the subject of a current show at the Queens Museum of Art wasn't a typical man.

Open until July 4, "Ralph Bunche: Diplomat for Peace and Justice" celebrates the centennial birth of one of the best known diplomats and humanitarians in contemporary history. The exhibition, of which this paper and WCBS Channel 2 are media sponsors, highlights Bunche's impact on Middle East politics, American race relations and the decolonization movement in 1960s Africa . He was rewarded by becoming the first African-American to receive a Nobel Prize, for peace, in 1950.

That the show is happening is Queens is especially appropriate given the Detroit native lived there for 24 years until his death in 1971. Further, the United Nations General Assembly held sessions in the very same space where the Queens Museum of Art is now based, formerly called the New York City Building.

The majority of Bunche's life was spent working on behalf of the United Nations, where he ultimately became an Under Secretary-General. A fellowship he received in 1932 allowed him to make his first international trip, to Togoland and Dahomey . Until his death, he never stopped traveling.

The exhibition includes a main reading room with a timeline of Bunche's life accomplishments along the walls and a conference table with letters, speech transcripts, articles, as well as books by and about him. Visitors can enter three different side rooms with the headings of " Middle East ," "Decolonization," and "Race Relations."

For those familiar with Bunche's life as well as recent discoverers, the show offers a rich abundance of new material and information. What is most fascinating is how prescient many of Bunche's observations were. Writing to his wife Ruth in 1960, he notes, "This [the Congo ] is the toughest spot I've ever been in - even Palestine was safe by comparision." Bunche's take was made even before the rise of the late Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Fittingly, the Middle East area contains the largest number of items, given that Bunche gained his highest prominence by negotiating peace between Egypt , Israel , Syria and Lebanon between 1948 and 1949. Sent by U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie, he spent two months in Rhodes, Egypt, shuttling between respective delegations. Downtime and evenings were usually spent in the bar, drinking or shooting pool, hence the pool table on display. In the same room are his Nobel Prize and a sampling of the 68 honorary doctorates he received.

Ralph Bunche was also a voice of co-existence and peace on the domestic stage. A cofounder of the National Negro Congress, he wrote his first book, "A World View of Race," in 1936 and did considerable investigation into Black-white relations throughout America . Many of his findings were used by writer Gunnar Myrdal in the landmark 1947 work "An American Dilemma."

In the Race room, viewers can see Charles White's 1941 mural "Progress of the American Negro," which depicts landmark figures of that time such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and others. Other pieces on display include Archibald John Motley's "The Liar," commenting on Black social life in the mid-30s, and Augusta Savage's "The Harp," honoring James Weldon Johnson's anthem, "Lift Very Voice and Sing."

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Queens Museum of Art (QMA) Honours Life and Legacy of Nobel Laureate Ralph Bunche

Queens Chronicle, 6 May, 2004
By Keach Hagey

Queens Museum of Art's centennial exhibit on the life of longtime Queens resident Ralph Bunche, the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize, offers something that very few biographical exhibit ca: the fact that one of the central events in its subject's life took place inside the museum building.

It was November 29, 1947, and the museum was being used as a temporary headquarters for the fledgling United Nations. Bunche himself was in something of a temporary position as well, having been “borrowed” from his post at the U.S. State Department the year before by U.N. Secretary General Trygve Lie to handle problems of the world's people who had not yet attained self government.

This role became more specific in June of 1947, when Bunche was assigned to apply his negotiating skills to the confrontation between Arabs and Jews in Palestine . As the assistant to the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine , and then as principal secretary of the U.N. Palestine Commission, he drafted a plan for the partition of Palestine that established many of the borders between Israel and its Arab neighbors that we know today. It was ratified in the U.N. at its Queens headquarters that November day.

However, it was less the crafting of this plan than its breakdown – and subsequent repair that made Bunche an international celebrity. When, in early 1948, the plan was dropped and fighting broke out between Jews and Arabs, the U.N. appointed Count Folke Bernadotte as mediator and Bunche as his chief aide.

Four months later, Count Bernadotte was assassinated, and Bunche, who narrowly escaped death himself, jumped into the breach. After 11 months of virtually ceaseless negotiating, he obtained signatures on armistice agreements between Israel and the Arab States .

He returned home to a hero's welcome. New York gave him tickertape parade down Broadway. His native Los Angeles declared a “Ralph Bunche Day.” He was awarded the NAACO Spingarn Prize in 1949, over 30 honorary degrees in the next three years and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.

These events take up only a few feet of QMA's room long timeline of Bunche's life, which seems like an uninterrupted series of increasingly brilliant accomplishments from its beginning in 1903 to his death in 1971.

But the timeline is most effective in the way it places his life in its rather astounding historical context. Bunche was ascending the highest ranks of government decades before African Americans had the right to drink from the same drinking fountain as white people.

Bunche's work to help America solve its race problem earns its room in the exhibit, as do the two other themes of his life's work: peace in the Middle East and decolonization in Africa .

Although he was a major voice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, speaking just before Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington , he was generally considered a moderate, viewing segregation as an unreasoned phenomenon without scientific basis in biology or anthropology, and one that was incompatible with democracy.

Yet he and his family experienced discrimination here in queens, where they lived from 1947 until his death, first in the U.N. housing complex Parkway Village and later in a spacious Tudor Revival house in Kew Gardens. Most famously, Bunche's son was refused membership into the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills because of his race.

The QMA exhibit does a good job of keeping this context in view, but the essential story that it tells is not so much about a historical figure's triumph in the face of obstacles as bout the tangible ways that a great man becomes great.

Although several audio visual offer visitors narrated documentaries of the different periods of Bunche's life, the exhibit's strength is in its details, many which have never before been seen by the public.

The typed letter a young Bunche wrote to X.E.B. Dubois weeks before graduating at the top of his college class, asking for assistance in becoming a help to his race, offers a rare view of the combination of ambition and earnest devotion required for public life.

His Nobel Prize acceptance speech, with the first word of each page typed in the lower right corner of the previous one, reminds viewer of the simple mechanics behind the grand action of world leaders.

And a draft of Bunche's vehement denial letter to Senator Joseph McCarthy's House Committee on Un American Activities, heavily edited in pencil, is both a chilling artifact of Cold War paranoia and a testament to the power of reasoned words to overcome it.

With the political situation in the Middle East today looking as bad as it ever has, one leaves the exhibit wondering where the wielders of reasons words like Bunche have gone.

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A Pair of Exhibits

Newsday, April 22, 2004

Two new exhibits are open at the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The first, "Ralph Bunche: Diplomat for Peace and Justice," marks the centenary of the groundbreaking African-American diplomat with more than 200 photographs, artifacts, films, documents and artworks. The show focuses on three themes as they relate to Bunche's life and work: race relations in the United States, decolonization and independence movements in Africa and the partition of Palestine. The second exhibit, "Nexus: Taiwan in Queens," gathers the work of 20 contemporary Taiwanese artists - the first such New York museum show to do so. For more information, call 718-592-9700, or visit www.queensmuseum.org

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Dr. Ralph J. Bunche: Peacemaker

Michigan Chronicle, March 9, 2004

"I have a deep-seated bias against hate and intolerance. I have a bias against racial and religious bigotry. I have a bias against war and bias for peace. I have a bias that leads me to believe in the essential good of my fellow man, which leads me to believe that no problem of human relations is ever insoluble." - Ralph Bunche, Nobel Laureate, 1950

Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche was born Aug. 7, 1903 in Detroit . He was an African American pioneer in a number of respects: first Nobel Peace Prize Winner; first Ph.D. at Harvard; first President of the American Political Science Association among the founders of the NAACP and the National Negro of Congress. He rose to be the first American and African American United Nations Undersecretary General, the second highest position in the organization.

In the process Dr. Bunche had to overcome many obstacles. After several family moves, he was orphaned at the age of 13. At school in Los Angeles, where he excelled both academically and athletically, he was shunted into "practical" courses for Negro Children until his grandmother insisted on his college preparation, but he was denied citywide academic recognition because of his race.

Augmenting a scholarship with jobs to work his way through UCLA, he was both valedictorian and star athlete. With the aid of a Los Angeles sorority, he was able to go on to graduate work at Harvard studying political science, completing his dissertation on decolonization of African countries. He shuttled between a teaching post in the newly created Howard University Political Science Department in Washington , and graduate school to finish his doctoral and post-doctoral studies.

Dr. Bunche's predecessor at the United Nations was assassinated in mediating the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, and Ralph Bunche succeeded him in completing the armistice agreement. Thus, Dr. Bunche combined a formidable intellect with indomitable courage to hone the art of diplomacy and negotiation. As a result he is an inspiration not only to the African American community, but for all people as well.

The Center for Peace and Conflict Studies in the College of Urban , Labor and Metropolitan Affairs is proud to announce the development of the Ralph Bunche Peace Scholarship. The scholarship would benefit a deserving native Detroiter and/or international student whose desire and interest in peace making or diplomatic careers is reminiscent of the Bunche legacy. Students pursing an undergraduate degree would co-major in peace and conflict studies while graduate students would earn a masters of arts in dispute
resolution.

Descriptions of the programs are listed below.

Peace and Conflict Studies

The program in Peace and Conflict Studies combines international and domestic perspectives for understanding and settling disputes. It
integrates the approaches to understanding human conflict, peacemaking, and dispute resolution - awareness necessary in our society and throughout the world.

Co-majors in peace and conflict studies are now able to receive a specialty certificate in any of seven different areas: race, gender, and religion; peace and conflict theory; human relations; international issues of peace and conflict studies; peace and conflict studies in the United States; peace studies in human development; dispute resolution.

Masters of Arts in Dispute Resolution

The Wayne State M.A. and Graduate Certificate Program in Dispute Resolution offer a challenging curriculum in the growing field of dispute management. As an interdisciplinary professional degree, grounded in the fundamental precept that dispute resolution techniques are inherently democratic in giving voice to disputants, the program provides practical and academic experience that constitutes the range of dispute resolution activities: labor and school mediation, commercial arbitration, family counseling, legal negotiation, and international diplomacy. All students participate in a practicum experience intended to extend student knowledge and build professional relationships both inside and outside the university.

Dr. Bunche's life touched every relevant social issue of the 20th century, and with the community's support we propose to make his legacy relevant to the next generations of students and national leaders through this endowment at Wayne State University.

For more information about our programs or to contribute to the scholarship fund, contact Dr. Frederic Pearson at (313) 577-8268 or mailto: ab3440@wayne.edu or staff assistant Steven Durant at (313) 577-6787.

In Centennial Year of the Birth of Ralph Bunche, Congress Recognizes His Many Accomplishments

UNA-USA Information and Resources, March 3, 2004

Born in August 1904, veteran U.N. diplomat Ralph Bunche is receiving recognition by the United States Congress in the centennial year of his birth. Paying tribute to the historic contribution of Bunche, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) introduced H. Con. Res. 71 on February 27, 2003 with 10 cosponsors. The resolution recognizes "the importance of Ralph Bunche as one of the great leaders of the United States , the first African-American Nobel Peace Prize winner, an accomplished scholar, a distinguished diplomat, and a tireless campaigner of civil rights for people throughout the world." The resolution was agreed to by voice vote in the House of Representatives on October 8, 2003 .

During House consideration of the resolution, Rangel called Bunche a pioneer and said, "He defied the odds of the times, achieving in a number of areas, from diplomacy to education, while standing as a quiet yet effective warrior in the struggle to break down the negative perceptions of inferiority then held about African-Americans." He added, "This resolution is especially appropriate at this time, for in recognizing Ralph Bunche, we also recognize the value of the United Nations to the world and especially, to the United States ."

Ralph Bunche was a scholar before entering public service. "One could begin nearly anywhere in discussing the resumé and accomplishments of Ambassador Bunche," said Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA). "He earned his doctorate at Harvard University before he single-handedly established the political science department at Howard University here in Washington ."

Members Point to Varied Accomplishments

Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL) recalled little known aspects of Bunche's life, including being orphaned at the age of 12, and his subsequent raising by his grandmother who had been born into slavery. Yet, Bunche overcame great personal and societal odds to become valedictorian when he graduated from high school. Davis noted, "While studying at the University of California at Los Angeles , he supported himself with an athletic scholarship, which paid for his collegiate expenses, and a janitorial job, which paid for his personal expenses."

Davis mentioned that as a student, Bunche "traveled through French West Africa on a Rosenwald field fellowship, which enabled him to conduct research in Africa for a dissertation comparing French rule in Togoland and Dahomey . He completed his work with such distinction that he was awarded the Toppan Prize for outstanding research in social studies." Bunche also "collaborated with Swedish sociologist Gunnar Mydral on the monumental study of U.S. race relations published as An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy . The study is renowned for presenting the theory that poverty breeds poverty."

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) cited the many prestigious awards that Ralph Bunche received during his lifetime, including the NAACP's highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, in 1949, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Jackson-Lee stated, "I am proud to stand on the House floor today and celebrate his accomplishments. He is truly a great American hero."

Was Instrumental in Drafting Parts of the U.N. Charter

Shortly after joining the State Department, Ralph Bunche served as an advisor to the U.S. delegation at the 1945 San Francisco conference establishing the United Nations. H. Con. Res. 71 praises Bunche as "instrumental in drafting Chapters XI and XII…" of the U.N. Charter, which covers "non-self-governing territories and the International Trusteeship System, which helped African countries achieve their independence and assisted in their transition to self-governing sovereign states." In 1955, Bunche was appointed Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, in charge of several peacekeeping missions.

The House-passed resolution was sent to the Senate, where it was passed by unanimous consent on November 22, 2003 . According to Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), "It is difficult to know exactly how to pay tribute to Ralph J. Bunche for his extraordinary contributions to scholarship, diplomacy, civil rights, social justice and international cooperation and development…." He continued, "Ralph Bunche went on to become the U.N. Undersecretary-General, but he is probably best remembered as the recipient of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize, which he was awarded for negotiating the armistice that ended military hostilities between the new State of Israel and its enemies. He was not only the first African American to receive the prize, he was also the first person of color; as an American, he joined the distinguished community of U.S. laureates that included Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, Jane Adams and Nicholas Murray Butler."

Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) introduced S. Con. Res. 82 on November 18, 2003 , with 15 cosponsors. This resolution is nearly identical to the passed resolution, and was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate on November 22. It was subsequently sent to the House, where it remains. Biden called Bunche an "extraordinary man whose success was a definitive accomplishment in the history of America ."

Former UNA-USA Chairman Received Ralph J. Bunche Award

On February 26, 2004 , UNA-USA's former chairman, John C. Whitehead, was given the Ralph J. Bunche Award by Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage at the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Awards Dinner in Washington . "Indeed, this is a fitting time to remember Ralph Bunche," said Armitage. "Not only because it is the centenary year of his birth, but also because, in this time of change, of tragedy and unusual opportunities, we still have much to learn from his legacy." Armitage observed that Bunche "was a passionate defender of human rights and racial equality at home and also around the world. But there was a simple common thread that linked all of his various roles together. He was, as he once put it, a professional optimist. Optimistic, he clarified, in the sense of assuming that there is no problem which cannot be solved."

Urquhart Recalls Bunche's Life

Former Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs Brian Urquhart praised Ralph Bunche in the fall 2003 edition of the UN Chronicle . He wrote that "Bunche brought to his work at the United Nations the vitality, integrity and spirit of a remarkable family, the intellect of a scholar, the analytical mind and the experience of a political scientist who had worked mostly in the field, and the passion for justice and freedom of a member of an oppressed minority." Urquhart recalled mourning Bunche's death in 1971 when "Secretary-General U Thant hailed him as 'an international institution in his own right'. The General Assembly stood for a minute of silence in his honour."

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One of UCLA's most distinguished alumni, Ralph Johnson Bunche (1903 – 71), fought poverty and racism on his way to becoming one of the 20th century's leading peacemakers. The world honored him in 1950 with the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reach a settlement between the Arabs and Israelis in the Middle East , but that was only one exceptional accomplishment in an extraordinary life dedicated to achieving harmony and equality among all people, regardless of nationality or race.

“‘ ... the great good that is in us': A Centenary Celebration of Ralph J. Bunche,” an online exhibit accessible at library.ucla.edu/bunche, celebrates Bunche's remarkable legacy by focusing on his accomplishments in three main areas: as a student, a scholar and a diplomat. It is organized in conjunction with the international celebration of the centenary of Bunche's birth.

The exhibit features personal letters, official correspondence, diary entries, family photos, scripts for speeches, manuscripts for articles and links to the UCLA Library and external resources, among other materials. The exhibit draws primarily from the Ralph J. Bunche papers and the Brian Urquhart Collection of Material about Ralph Bunche, both held by the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections.

The exhibit begins with Bunche's childhood in Detroit , Albuquerque and Los Angeles . In this section, visitors can view family and school photos, read personal letters and reminiscences, and see sheet music of a song Bunche learned from his mother.

Bunche earned an athletic scholarship to attend UCLA, where he enrolled in 1923 at what was then known as the Southern Branch of the University of California . The exhibit features historic photos of the campus, which was located on Vermont Avenue ; photos of Bunche playing basketball; and a 1966 letter to the Daily Bruin in which Bunche recalls his college days. He was very involved with oratory both on- and off-campus, and visitors can also read his handwritten script for a 1926 – 27 speech he gave to an audience of mostly black adults.

UCLA honored its famous alumnus several times. Visitors can read the full text of the address he gave at UCLA's 1950 commencement exercises, turn the pages of the booklet published when Ralph Bunche Hall was dedicated in 1969 and view historic photos from both occasions, including an amusing picture of Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) with Bunche and his wife.

Bunche earned a fellowship from Harvard University , where he completed his master's degree in political science in 1928. Visitors can read a personal letter to UCLA Dean C.H. Rieber in which Bunche announces his intention to pursue an academic rather than legal career, and the manuscript for his first published article, which appeared in the National Municipal Review in 1928.

Howard University recruited Bunche to establish its political science department, and shortly after arriving in Washington , D.C. , he met his future wife, Ruth. In this section, visitors can see family photos of Bunche and his wife and their three children, Joan, Jane and Ralph Jr. While teaching at Howard, Bunche simultaneously worked on his Ph.D. at Harvard; when he received it in 1934, he became the first black to earn this advanced degree in political science in the United States . Bunche published extensively during this period, and this section contains links to a number of his articles, including one written for a 1935 issue of UCLA's Southern Alumnus magazine

In 1939 Bunche began to work with Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal on a project to survey the conditions of blacks in America , sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation. He spent two years on the project, which resulted in the landmark work “An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.” Visitors can read the extensive questionnaire survey participants were asked to complete and see reviews of the book, which was praised by popular, academic and black publications.

Bunche worked for the United States government during World War II, and as part of the State Department's postwar planning group, he participated in the planning of a world organization. He was a member of the U.S. delegation to the 1945 conference at which the United Nations charter was drafted, to the U.N. Preparatory Commission in London later that year and to the first session of the U.N. General Assembly held in London in early 1946. Visitors can view his own tattered personal copy of the U.N. Charter and read the draft of a resolution he introduced by working through the Chinese delegation to create a committee on non-self-governing territories.

In December 1946, Bunche joined the U.N. as director of the Trusteeship Division, which dealt with colonies and territories. However, shortly thereafter he was assigned by the secretary-general to the Special Committee on Palestine , which was investigating the unrest that had broken out following the withdrawal of the British troops. Chosen to assist mediator Count Folke Bernadotte, Bunche traveled to Palestine in 1948 to negotiate an armistice between Israel and Egypt , Jordan , Lebanon and Syria , and following Bernadotte's assassination in September 1948, he took over as mediator. Visitors can view historic photos and Bunche's official U.N. identification card and read personal letters and official press releases on this momentous mission, for which Bunche earned the Nobel Peace Prize.

Bunche was in the U.N. Delegates' dining room in September 1950 when he learned that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in Palestine . Visitors can view a photograph of him being presented with the medal and read the handwritten script of his acceptance speech and the text of the lecture he presented the following day. A particularly touching memento in this section is the handmade certificate Bunche's seven-year-old son made to congratulate his father on this honor.

Bunche undertook a number of other peace missions for the U.N. throughout the ensuing years. One particularly challenging one was in the Congo , and visitors can read the handwritten letter he wrote to his son in July 1960 in which he describes the troops downstairs in the hotel lobby and his fears for his life.

The exhibit also features photos of Bunche in Yemen , which he visited in 1963 on a fact-finding mission to investigate a conflict between royalist and republican forces, and in Cyprus , where he organized a peacekeeping force to quell conflicts between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

During his presidential campaign John F. Kennedy had asked Bunche to serve as an adviser, and Bunche also had been asked several times to become a part of the administration. Although he declined all these invitations, Bunche admired Kennedy a great deal. Visitors can view a photo of Kennedy and Bunche taken when the president came to address the U.N. General Assembly in September 1963 as well as a photo of President Lyndon B. Johnson presenting Bunche with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a civilian can receive from the U.S. government, on Dec. 6, 1963 . Bunche had learned in October that Kennedy had selected him as a recipient, and, despite Kennedy's assassination, the presentation ceremony went ahead as planned, with the White House still draped in mourning. Bunche was the first UCLA alumnus to receive this honor.

Bunche's involvement with civil rights issues was a constant theme throughout his life, from episodes of discrimination he experienced personally to scholarly works he wrote on discriminatory practices to the support he lent to Martin Luther King Jr., and other activists. The exhibit documents this involvement through photographs, articles, letters, speeches, diary entries, memos and telegrams.

This exhibit has been organized by Ruby Bell-Gam, Research Library African studies bibliographer; Ellen Broidy, Research Library Anglo-American history bibliographer; Norma Corral, Research Library reference librarian; Genie Guerard, manuscripts librarian, Research Library Department of Special Collections; Roberta Medford, Research Library social science bibliographer; Josh Paddison, research assistant, Research Library Department of Special Collections; and Dawn Setzer, director of Library Communications.

Press Contact: Dawn Setzer, dsetzer@library.ucla.edu (310) 825-0746

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UCLA Dedicates New Ralph Bunche Center

Los Angeles Sentinel, November 9, 2003

WESTWOOD--The African-American Studies center at UCLA was renamed for Ralph J. Bunche, one of the university's most famous alumnus and the first black to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

Bunche helped draft the 1945 United Nations charter and negotiated the 1949 armistice ending the Arab-Israeli War, which brought him the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize.

The renaming ceremony is one of several events planned at UCLA to honor the 100th anniversary of Bunche's birth. He was born on Aug. 7, 1903, in Detroit , but was raised in South Los Angeles . He died in 1971 at the age of 67.

"Ralph Bunche was an unassuming man - he never bothered, for instance, to correct a common misapprehension that he was born in 1904," Sir Brian Urquhart, a close confidant of Bunche and later his successor as U.N. undersecretary general, wrote in an Aug. 7 column in The New York Times.

After graduating from Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles , Bunche attended UCLA on an athletic scholarship, playing basketball, and worked as a janitor to support himself. He graduated in 1927 as his class' valedictorian, majoring in international relations.

Bunche continued his studies at Harvard, earning a masters degree in 1928 and his doctorate in 1934.

Bunche combined work in academia, diplomacy, government and the civil rights movement.

He was the chairman of Howard University 's political science department from 1928-50 and taught at Harvard from 1950-52.

Bunche was an adviser to the State Department during World War 11, but declined President Harry Truman's offer to become assistant secretary of state after the war because of segregated housing in Washington.

From 1946-71, Bunche held a variety of positions at the United Nations, including undersecretary general.

Bunche wrote extensively and lectured on civil rights and joined Martin Luther King Jr. in leading a march in Montgomery, Ala. in 1965.

In a New York Times column, Urquhart described Bunche as "a very practical, and extremely responsible man."

"He disliked dilly-dallying with human tragedy and despised failures to respond to those in dire need," Urquhart wrote.

"Of all his many accomplishments - civil rights pioneer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, chief drafter of the two chapters of the United Nations charter, negotiator of the armistices that ended the first Arab-Israeli War -Bunche said he was proudest of developing what came to be known as peacekeeping," Urquhart wrote.

Jamaica P.M. supports U.N

Washington Afro-American, November 7, 2003

The leader of one of the Caribbean's key countries said the United Nations should have a stronger role in interpreting and acting on international law, not individual countries, such as the United States.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, of Jamaica , said the U.S. should abide by international law "just like everyone else," and allow individual nations to determine their destiny. Patterson was the guest speaker at the Howard University Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center , an entity that studies international affairs and interests.

Patterson's speech is a part of the Ralph Bunche Legacy Lecture series that honors the late Howard University political science professor, founder of the school's political science department and the first man of African descent to win the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in 1950.

Co-sponsors of the lecture were the National Coalition on Caribbean Affairs, the United Nations Association National Capital Area and
TransAfrica.

Bunche is noted for negotiating the first peace agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors in 1949. President Harry Truman had considered him for secretary of state, but Bunche declined, saying he did not want to live in then-segregated Washington .

Bunche continued to work with the United Nations as a mediator and an under secretary-general. He died in 1971.

"We need another Ralph Bunche today," said Patterson to thunderous applause.

Patterson said Bunche helped many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America win freedom from their colonial masters by using the United Nations.

"The United Nations, with Bunche's leadership, led many out of colonialism, and he did this by preventive diplomacy," said Patterson. "There was little bloodshed when colonies became free in many cases because Bunche brought the sides to the negotiating table."

Patterson said that the old Cold War standard of world order no longer exists, but new problems have arrived.

"Ethnic cleansing, nuclear proliferation, child exploitation, economic instability have replaced the conflicts of the Cold War," said Patterson. "These are the new challenges for the United Nations."

While Patterson did not point his finger at the Bush administration, he did talk about the need for every nation to work within the confines of the United Nations.

"We must restore respect for international law and the U.N. must be the cornerstone to maintain world peace," he said. "If the U.N. is allowed to work within the rule of law, democracy can flourish."

Patterson called for the U.N. to expand the number of permanent seats on the Security Council. At present, the U.S. , Russia , Great Britain , China and France are the permanent members, with other countries rotating in and out at various times.

He said that smaller countries, such as Jamaica , are not threats to anyone, but deserve protection from larger countries on military and economic fronts. On the U.S. role in Iraq , he gingerly said other countries should have a role in rebuilding that country and the U.N. should be a major player.

He took a tough stand on terrorism, but expressed some concerns.

"Fight terrorism, yes, but we need collective dialogue to understand why it takes place. We should stop those states with weapons of mass destruction, but we cannot ignore other pressing issues, such as widespread poverty and the spread of HIV/AIDS."

Patterson also urged larger countries to stop the sale of illicit drugs and arms smuggling, which benefits the black markets of small countries in the Caribbean.

"We [the Caribbean countries] are beautiful, but vulnerable," he said.

UCLA Renames Center to Honor Ralph Bunche

Black Issues in Higher Education, November 6, 2003

The University of California Los Angeles honored one of its most distinguished alumni last month during a ceremony to rename its African American Studies center to the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.

"We could think of no more worthy individual after whom to name the center," says the center's director Darnell Hunt. "UCLA valedictorian, Nobel Prize winner, scholar of race relations, tireless advocate for civil rights--Dr. Ralph J. Bunche most perfectly embodies all of the elements that have defined our work at the center for the past 35 years, as well as the ideals that will inspire this work in the future."

Bunche, the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in governmental and international relations at Harvard University , is widely known for his role in negotiating the landmark Palestine Accord between the new state of Israel and the Arab nations in 1949. As well, he was an outspoken advocate for civil rights in the United States and one of the most important scholars on U.S. race relations in the 20th century.

The renaming ceremony kicks off a year of UCLA commemorations honoring the 100th anniversary of Bunche's birth. Events include academic programs and conferences that will explore his legacy and a comprehensive lesson plan for grades 9-12 that supports learning about Bunche.

"Bunche's achievements in scholarship, diplomacy and civil rights were monumental and deserve widespread recognition," says Dr. Scott Waugh, UCLA's dean of social sciences and chair of the Ralph Bunche Centenary Los Angeles Planning committee. "UCLA is proud to have a place in that legacy and to participate with others in Los Angeles and around the country in bringing greater awareness of Bunche's accomplishments."

Ralph Bunche Centenary Celebrated

New York Amsterdam News, November 5, 2003
By Damaso Reyes

Diplomat, scholar, activist, mediator - all those descriptions are accurate when describing Ralph Bunche, a United Nations statesman who dedicated his work to resolving conflict and creating a more just world.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of his birth, and the United Nations, along with the City University of New York, is celebrating the life of a most remarkable man.

Born the son of a barber in Detroit , Bunche rose to great heights from humble beginnings. He attended the University of Southern California and went on to receive an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard while teaching at Howard University . Bunche was also a member of FDR's so-called Black Cabinet, advising Roosevelt on race matters.

Where Bunche left his most lasting legacy is at the institution which he was instrumental in creating: the United Nations. He served on the American delegation to the conference in San Francisco which drafted the U.N. Charter and went on to serve the organization in several roles, including undersecretary-general for special political affairs.

His work as a mediator is perhaps his most lasting legacy. He was instrumental in negotiating armistice agreements between Israel and four Arab states - Egypt , Jordan , Syria and Lebanon - after the foundation of the Jewish state. It was for this work that Bunche received his field's highest honor when in 1950 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first person of color to receive the honor, which, coming as it did during the height of Jim Crow, couldn't have been a more effective repudiation of that philosophy.

"He is as present and relevant today as he was during the early days of the United Nations," said United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who spoke at the opening of an exhibition on the life of Bunche now on display at the U.N. "We observe Ralph Bunche's dignity in the face of bigotry. He reminds us that one person, even against great odds, can make a difference, shaming us out of our ignorance," Annan added.

The exhibition features rare photographs of Bunche from his childhood and early days to his life as a world statesman. It also includes an informative text as well as a well-produced film which speaks about Bunche's work in the Congo and his role in assuring the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"This exhibition is not about the past, but of the present and the future," Thomas Weiss, director of CUNY's Ralph Bunche Institute, told the audience gathered for the opening of the show, which fell on United Nations Day. "He saw American leadership as key to the health of the United Nations," he added.

Over the past year the Bush administration has had several high-profile disagreements with other members of the U.N., circumventing the body altogether in its drive to invade Iraq . Many conservatives call the U.N. irrelevant, but the life of Ralph Bunche clearly illustrates the power and effectiveness that comes from a multilateral approach.

The centenary exhibition runs until November 21 in the lobby of the United Nations building. For more information about ongoing events during the centenary year, visit www.ralphbunchecentenary.org.

Ralph Bunche “Great Champion of Peace,” one of the Finest Ever to serve UN, says Secretary-General at the Centenary Exhibition Opening

UN Press Release, SG/SM/8963/HQ/627 October 27, 2003

Following are Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s remarks at the opening of the Ralph Bunche Centenary Exhibition, delivered in New York on 24 October:

Good evening, and it’s wonderful to see so many of you here today.

My dear friends, let me first welcome you to the United Nations, on this day, the United Nations Day.

I am glad to see so many friends here as we open an exhibition devoted to a great champion of peace and one of the finest servants of the United Nations -– Ralph Bunche.

Ralph left a legacy of achievement in which many share – his family, his colleagues, the United Nations, the United States, African-Americans, Africans, the people of the Middle East, and indeed all who believe in the cause of human rights and world peace.

During this year in which we mark the centennial of his birth, the Ralph Bunche Centenary Commemoration Committee is raising awareness of this man’s life, and of its importance to our world today, and as you heard from Tom Weiss, is as present and as relevant today as he was in the early years of the United Nations.

We at the United Nations are glad to be partners with those who have made this commemoration possible, and I want to thank the members of the Committee for their efforts, as I thank all who have put together this fine exhibition.

Ralph Bunche’s record of achievement emerges clearly from these displays: a leading scholar of race relations; a key player in shaping the process of decolonization, particularly in Africa; a driving force behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; a fighter for civil rights in his own country; a master international mediator who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for the agreement he negotiated in the Middle East; and a father of United Nations peacekeeping.
But something else emerges from this exhibit that we are about to see – something even more compelling.

We observe Ralph Bunche’s dignity and determination in the face of bigotry and harassment. We see the sacrifices he and his family made as he served the cause of peace. We learn of his belief in the essential goodness of people and in the possibility of progress -– beliefs tempered by realism and matched by a determination to see things through. We are uplifted by his moral commitment to a world in which every person has, in his own magnificent words, “the right to walk in dignity on the world’s great boulevards”.

So as we look at these images of Ralph Bunche, he looks back at us – reminding us that one person, even against the odds, can make an enormous difference; shaming us out of our ignorance and indifference; urging us towards understanding and action.

Ralph Bunche was, and remains, an inspiration. It is a great pleasure for me to declare this exhibition open, but let me say that I have cheated. My wife Nane saw it earlier and she said “you have to come and see it, it is so wonderful”, so she brought me here and we both enjoyed it very much. But I will look at it again this evening with you. Thank you very much.

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Ralph Bunche's Legacy

Newsday, October 22, 2003

Celebrating United Nations Day on Sunday, the United Nations Association
and the Queens Borough Public Library will present a talk, "The Legacy of Dr.
Ralph Bunche." The program will be at the Langston Hughes Community Library and
Cultural Center, 100-01 Northern Blvd., at 2 p.m. Professor Benjamin Rivlin,
director emeritus of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at
CUNY Graduate Center, will speak. There will be a musical performance by
Charisse Mills. Admission is free.

Ralph Bunche, who died in 1971, was the first African-American and person
of color to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1950) and to serve as
undersecretary of the United Nations (1955-1971). He lived in Kew Gardens.

UCLA Honors Distinguished Alumnus Ralph J. Bunche With Renaming of African American Studies Center and Other Events

One of UCLA’s most distinguished alumni, Ralph J. Bunche, is widely known as an international statesman and Nobel Prize winner who negotiated the landmark Palestine Accord between the new state of Israel and the Arab nations in 1949. But he was also an outspoken advocate for civil rights in the United States and one of the most important scholars on U.S. race relations in the 20th century.

In honor of Bunche’s life and in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of his birth, UCLA has renamed its African American Studies center the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. The university will hold a renaming ceremony from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 9, in Dickson Plaza.

“We could think of no more worthy individual after whom to name the center,” said Darnell Hunt, director of the center. “UCLA valedictorian, Nobel Prize winner, scholar of race relations, tireless advocate for civil rights — Dr. Ralph J. Bunche most perfectly embodies all of the elements that have defined our work at the center for the past 35 years, as well as the ideals that will inspire this work in the future.”

At the ceremony, Joan Bunche will receive an award in honor of her father. UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale will make welcoming remarks. Popular artist and UCLA benefactor LeRoy Neiman has created a portrait of Bunche that the center will unveil during the ceremony.

The event also kicks off a year of UCLA commemorations honoring Bunche’s centenary, which includes academic programs that will explore his legacy and a comprehensive lesson plan that supports learning about Bunche.

“Bunche’s achievements in scholarship, diplomacy and civil rights were monumental and deserve widespread recognition,” said Scott Waugh, UCLA’s dean of social sciences and chair of the Ralph Bunche Centenary Los Angeles Planning committee. “UCLA is proud to have a place in that legacy and to participate with others in Los Angeles and around the country in bringing greater awareness of Bunche’s accomplishments”.

At UCLA, Bunche also is the namesake of a prominent academic building. And since 1974, a UCLA alumni scholarship has benefited about 425 students who have track records of academic excellence and community involvement. Bunche’s name will now also be associated with the interdisciplinary center for African-American research and instruction.

Bunche was raised in Watts by his grandmother, Lucy Taylor Johnson, who taught her grandson to believe in himself, in the value of education and work, and in the essential goodness of his fellow human beings. As a political science major at UCLA, he excelled as a debater, wrote columns for the Daily Bruin, reigned as a star basketball player and ultimately graduated as valedictorian in 1927.

When Bunche was accepted on scholarship to Harvard for graduate studies, Southern Californians formed a scholarship fund for him, which raised $1,000 toward his living expenses. He became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in government and international relations at Harvard.

Always looking to place localized racial conflict in a broader context, Bunche, the political scientist, contributed hundreds of pages of incisive, original research to Gunnar Myrdal’s paradigm-establishing treatise on race, “An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.”

In celebration of Bunche’s centenary, various activities and honors are taking place at UCLA.

2003 UCLA Founders Day celebration on Oct. 26

• The event honors the university’s past, celebrates its present and anticipates its vibrant future. The section of the program focusing on the past will include a video montage on Bunche. Debbie Allen, the accomplished dancer, actor, director and producer, will perform, and UCLA Chancellor Carnesale will speak. The event takes place at noon on Sunday, Oct. 26, in Royce Hall.

Grades 9–12 education planning guide entitled “The Life and Work of Ralph Bunche”

• This October, the National Center for History in the Schools will publish a 180-page planning guide for the nation’s high schools. The plan follows Bunche’s life and career. Copies of the lesson will be available at the Oct. 9 ceremony. For more information on the lesson plan, call (310) 825-4702.

Exhibits of Bunche holdings by UCLA’s Charles E. Young Research Library

• Home to one of the most extensive collections of Bunche’s papers, the research library’s special collections department has launched a preliminary digital exhibition of highlights from the Bunche collection. The exhibition is online at www.library.ucla.edu/bunche. A physical display of the library’s Bunche holdings will go on view beginning January 2004.

Bunche’s contributions to American intellectual life and African independence

• UCLA’s Bunche Center will host a Feb. 20–21 conference that will focus on Bunche’s contribution to the landmark 1944 study “An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy,” the most comprehensive look to date at American race relations.

• UCLA’s James S. Coleman African Studies Center and Globalization Research Center-Africa will host a spring 2004 conference on Bunche’s impact on the decolonization of Africa.

Kenny Burrell premieres musical composition in honor of Bunche

• Kenny Burrell, UCLA professor of music and ethnomusicology, founder and director of the university’s jazz studies, and one of the all-time greatest jazz guitarists, will premiere a commissioned musical composition in honor of Bunche on June 10 in Schoenberg Hall.

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The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the Graduate Center Hosts the Ralph Bunche Centenary Commemoration Secretariat

For IMMEDIATE release:

The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The Graduate Center
Hosts the Ralph Bunche Centenary Commemoration Secretariat

August 7, 2003 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nobel Laureate, international civil servant, scholar, and civil rights pioneer, Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche. To honor Bunche's life and emphasize the relevance of his legacy, a year-long international commemoration will take place through August 2004, with The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies (RBIIS) at The CUNY Graduate Center hosting the centenary Secretariat, which serves as catalyst and motivators for commemorative events in the United States and around the world.

An exhibit honoring the achievements of Dr. Bunche opened on August 7 at Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Studies. The United Nations will launch its own exhibit that alternates text, photographic images, and objects related to the life and accomplishments of Dr. Bunche on October 8, and this exhibit will come to The CUNY Graduate Center on December 10, 2003. It will later travel to the Queens Museum of Art where it will be complemented with contemporary artwork and additional historical artifacts. Information and a full calendar of events about the educational outreach programs, conferences, symposiums, lectures, concerts, and special UN Day Celebrations that will be held locally and internationally can be found at: <http://www.ralphbunchecentenary.org>

Ralph Bunche (1903-1971) left a rich legacy of achievements wherever his career took him - UCLA, Harvard University, Howard University, field research in Africa, the Office of Strategic Services, the U.S. State Department, and the United Nations. Bunche was propelled into the international limelight in 1950 when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his successful role as UN Mediator in the negotiations that led to the armistice between Israel and its four Arab neighbors, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Prior to this, Bunche made his mark as a scholar-activist, be it in the struggle for civil rights in the U.S. or against colonialism in Africa. He became a chief troubleshooter for peace, called upon by UN Secretaries-General Lie, Hammarskjöld, and U Thant.

The Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The CUNY Graduate Center continues to honor the Bunche legacy by promoting research, graduate training, and public education about international affairs and solutions to contemporary global problems. Founded in 1973 as the Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations, it was renamed in 2001 and given a broader inter-disciplinary scope with the mandate to support and further strengthen international studies at The Graduate Center. Under the directorship of Thomas G. Weiss, presidential professor of Political Science, the Institute provides a congenial and inter-disciplinary setting for the activities by core and affiliated faculty and visiting scholars with international portfolios and research; and it facilitates the mentoring of graduate students. Further information about the Institute can be found at: <http://web.gc.cuny.edu/RalphBuncheInstitute>

The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York. The only consortium of its kind in the nation, The Graduate Center draws its faculty of more than 1,600 members mainly from the CUNY senior colleges and cultural and scientific institutions throughout New York City. According to the most recent National Research Council report, more than a third of The Graduate Center's rated Ph.D. programs rank among the nation's top 20 at public and private institutions.
Further information can be found at: <www.gc.cuny.edu>

Press Contact: David Manning, dmanning@gc.cuny.edu (212) 817-7177 or 7170

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1950 Ralph Bunche ‘Nation shall not rise up against nation…'
By Nuchhi R. Currier for the UN Chronicle

In his Nobel Lecture on 11 December 1950, Ralph Johnson Bunche spoke of the United Nations in glowing terms after being honoured as the first UN Nobel Peace Laureate. Calling the United Nations "the greatest peace effort in history" and emphasizing that it "exists not merely to preserve the peace but also to make change ... possible without violent upheaval", he stressed that the Organization sought "only unity, not uniformity, out of the world's diversity". He initially declined the award, writing to the Norwegian Nobel Committee: "You didn't work in the [UN] Secretariat to win prizes".

Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1903, Ralph Bunche came from a working-class black family. His grandmother, "Nana" Johnson, an influential figure in Ralph's life who lived with the family, had been born into slavery. An exceptional scholar, he began his graduate studies at Harvard University with a scholarship and a $1,000 fund raised by the black community of Los Angeles, California. He completed his master's degree in 1928 and his doctorate in 1934, both from Harvard. His dissertation, comparing French rule in Togoland and Dahomey, was awarded the Toppan Prize for outstanding research in social studies.

An educator, civil rights advocate and world statesman, Bunche made his mark as a scholar activist and left a rich legacy of achievement wherever his career took him—the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Harvard University, Howard University, the United States Office of Strategic Services and the State Department, and the United Nations. He joined the world Organization in 1946, in charge of the Department of Trusteeship, dealing with problems of the still enslaved and colonized. He ultimately became the UN chief troubleshooter and architect for peace, called upon repeatedly by Secretaries-General Trygve Lie, Dag Hammarskjöld and U Thant.

As principal Secretary of the UN Palestine Commission, he was charged with carrying out the partition approved by the General Assembly. When this plan aborted and fighting between the Arabs and Israelis escalated, Secretary-General Trygve Lie appointed Count Folke Bernadotte as Mediator on Palestine and Ralph Bunche as his chief aide. A few months later, Count Bernadotte was assassinated and Mr. Bunche was named acting UN mediator. After eleven months of virtually ceaseless negotiations, he obtained signatures on armistice agreements between Israel and the Arab States. The armistice represented the United Nations first tangible success in containing a war, and being its chief architect earned Ralph Bunche the Nobel Peace Prize.

The list of nominees for the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize included statesmen like Winston Churchill and George C. Marshall. That Ralph Bunche was the candidate picked by the Nobel Committee is a measure not just of the success of the ideals of the United Nations but also of the stature of the man. His own success was a direct result of his intellectual brilliance, rigorous scholarship, acute sensitivity to human relations, determination and sheer hard work. His career encompassed pioneering work in the cause of civil rights and racial equality in the United States, in the development of American governmental and public understanding of Africa, in the establishment of the United Nations, and the evolution of its innovative programmes for decolonization, international mediation, and the containment of armed conflict through international peacekeeping operations.

The mission of the United Nations was very close to Mr. Bunche's heart and he chose to remain at the Organization, despite a tempting offer of an appointment as professor of government at Harvard University. He rose to become Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs and was instrumental in developing and administering UN peacekeeping and truce observation activities in the Sinai in 1956, the Congo in 1960, Cyprus in 1962, Yemen in 1963 and India and Pakistan in 1965. He also played an important role in establishing the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Development Programme. In his Nobel Lecture, he virtually anticipated a debate current in the context of peacekeeping in the United Nations, and among those who study it, today. "To the common man, the state of world affairs is baffling. All nations and peoples claim to be for peace. But never has peace been more continuously in jeopardy", and "to make peace in the world secure, the United Nations must have readily at its disposal … military strength of sufficient dimensions to make certain that it can meet aggressive military force with international military force, speedily and conclusively."

He worked tirelessly towards the attainment of United Nations goals of providing equality and equal rights to all peoples, the rights of minorities, whether for reasons of race, religion, or ideology, and issues of decolonization. Ralph Bunche retired from the United Nations in early 1971 because of ill health, and died on 9 December of that year, on the eve of Human Rights Day. Secretary-General U Thant described him as "an international institution in his own right, transcending both nationality and race in a way that is achieved by very few".

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United Nations Ralph Bunche Centenary Lecture Series

UN Journal

The United Nations Department of Public Information, in association with the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies of the City University of New York Graduate Center, has arranged a series of three lectures to mark the birth centenary of Ralph Bunche and to honor his legacy. The first of these, titled “Ralph Bunche and the Question of Palestine”, will be from 1.00 to 3.00 p.m. on Thursday, 4 September 2003 in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium. Dennis Ross, President of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, will be the keynote speaker and Edward Mortimer, Director, Executive Office of the Secretary-General, principal discussant. Brian Urquhart, former United Nations Under Secretary-General, will moderate the event, which will be introduced by Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. The programme is open to questions from, and discussion with, the audience. Members of Permanent Missions, Secretariat staff, non-governmental organizations and the media are invited to attend.

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