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Ralph Johnson Bunche was born in
Detroit Michigan on August 7, 1904. He was the winner of
the 1950
Nobel Peace Prize for his work in obtaining a truce
in Palestine in 1949 and a key member of the United Nations for
over twenty years.
Ralph was orphaned at the age of
13 and his grandmother, Lucy Johnson raised Ralph
and his two sisters in California. "Nana"
instilled in the young Ralph her own values of perseverance,
self-reliance, and pride. She encouraged him in his studies and
insisted that he get a college education. Ralph was chosen
valedictorian of his senior high school class.
Ralph graduated Summa
Cum Laude from UCLA in 1927 and earned his graduate
degrees in government and international relations in 1928 and
1934. He was the first African American to earn a doctorate in
Political Science. Ralph became a member of the faculty at
Howard University while still a graduate student in 1928 and he
founded and chaired the school's Department of Political
Science.
From 1938 to 1940, Ralph
collaborated with Gunnar
Myrdal, the Swedish sociologist on a major study of
U.S. race relations. The work was published in 1944 as, An
American Dilemma -The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.
Ralph served in the State
Department, the War Department and the Office
of Strategic Services (CIA) during World War II. In
1944 he participated in the Dumbarton
Oaks Conference in San Francisco which laid the
foundation for the United Nations charter. Ralph became
the director of the Trusteeship Department of the
United Nations Secretariat in 1947 and in this position he
worked tirelessly for the decolonization of Africa and other
colonial issues.
Ralph was sent to Jerusalem in
1948 to aide the United Nations chief negotiator, Count
Folke Bernadotte. When Count Bernadotte was
assassinated, Ralph assumed the position of chief mediator and
negotiated the peace treaty between the Palestinians and the
Israelis. He was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize for his efforts in 1950.
In 1955 Ralph was appointed to
the post of Undersecretary for Special Political Affairs.
He was the chief troubleshooter for Dag
Hammarskjöld in the
middle east and in 1956 he supervised the deployment of a U.N.
force to Egypt following it's invasion by Great Britain, France
and Israel. Ralph also directed United Nations peace keepers in
the Congo in 1960 and on Cyprus in 1964. In 1963 President
Kennedy awarded Ralph Bunche the Medal
of Freedom.
After 1964, Ralph began to
participate more actively in the Civil
Rights movement speaking out against racial
discrimination and participating in the Civil Rights
marches of 1965. Ralph was a member on the board of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People
for twenty-two years.
Ralph Johnson Bunche died in New
York City on December 9, 1971.
Sources:
Encyclopedia
Britannica
Encyclopedia
Africana
Nobel
Foundation - Nobel Museum
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