Ralph Bunche

By Tom Kirvan

As a diplomat, he was a trailblazer, becoming the first African American official in the U.S. State Department in 1944 and the first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.

Ralph Bunche, born in Detroit in 1904, served in a key role in the formation and administration of the United Nations in 1945 following the end of World War II. Three years later, Bunche was appointed as a U.N. mediator in Palestine in an attempt to diffuse military conflicts between Jewish and Arab forces following the establishment of the State of Israel. Bunche rose to international prominence for helping negotiate armistice agreements between Israel and four Arab states, earning the peace prize for his efforts.

Orphaned at an early age, Bunche was a gifted student, earning valedictorian honors in high school and then graduated summa cum laude from UCLA, where he was awarded a scholarship for graduate work at Harvard University. At Harvard, Bunche became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in political science in the U.S. He served as the chief researcher and writer for Gunnar Myrdal’s ground-breaking study of American race relations, “An American Dilemma,” that was published in 1944.

In 1954, Bunche was named Undersecretary of the U.N., a post that made him one of the most respected and prominent diplomatic figures in the world, offering him a platform to promote peace.

Ralph Bunche*

“The well-being and the hopes of the peoples of the world can never be served until peace – as well as freedom, honor, and self-respect – is secure,” said Bunche, noting that “hearts are strongest when they beat in response to noble ideals.”

A strong voice in the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., Bunche was a longtime supporter of Martin Luther King Jr., favoring an “integrationist” approach to improved race relations.

“I have a deep-seated bias against hate and intolerance,” wrote Bunche, who died on December 9, 1971 at the age of 67. “I have a bias against racial and religious bigotry. I have a bias that leads me to believe in the essential goodness of my fellow man, which leads me to believe that no problem of human relations is ever insoluble.”

Added Bunche: “We must fight as a race for everything that makes for a better country and a better world. We are dreaming idiots and trusting fools to do anything less.”

*U.S. Information Agency., CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons