Ralph Bunche: Diplomat, Academic, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
By Jason Sibert
Ralph Bunche’s life was defined by accomplishment in the academic and diplomatic worlds.
Bunche was born in Detroit, Mich. in 1904. He later moved to Los Angeles, Calif. and graduated from Jefferson High School. Bunche eventually graduated from the University of California in Los Angeles and earned a masters degree in political science in 1928 and a doctorate in 1934. He later taught at Howard College, a historically black college. Bunche was the first African American to earn a doctorate from an American university.
He published a book “World View of Race” in 1936. For more than two decades, Bunche served as chair of the political science department at Howard University (1928-1950). He was a trustee of Oberlin College, Lincoln University, and New Lincoln School. From 1941 to 1943, Bunche served in the Office of Strategic Services, a World War II intelligence agency, as a senior social analysis on social affairs. In 1943, he was transferred from the OSS to the State Department.
Bunche was appointed Associate Chief of the Division of Dependent Area Affairs at State under Alger Hiss. With Hiss, Bunche became one of the leaders of the Institute of Pacific Relations. He participated in the preliminary planning for the United Nations at the San Francisco Conference of 1945.
Near the close of World War II in 1944, Bunche took part in planning for the United Nations at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference held in Washington, D.C. He was an adviser to the U.S. delegation for the “Charter Conference” of the United Nations held in 1945, when the governing document was drafted. Together with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Bunche was instrumental in the creation and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Bunche urged African Americans to take UN positions
According to the UN 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 the UN 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.
Beginning in 1947, Bunche was involved with trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in Palestine. He served as assistant to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine and as the principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission. In 1948, he traveled to the Middle East as the chief aide to Sweden’s Count Folke Bernadotte, who had been appointed by the UN to mediate the conflict. These men chose the island of Rhodes for their base and working headquarters. In September 1948, Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem by members of the underground Jewish Lehi group, which was led by Yitzhak Shamir. Following the assassination, Bunche became the chief UN mediator.
Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for achieving the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. He continued to work for the United Nations, mediating in other strife-torn regions, including the Congo, Yemen, Kashmir, and Cyprus. Bunche was appointed Under-Secretary General of the United Nations in 1968. He was also involved in the American civil rights movement. He participated in the 1963 March on Washington with Martin Luther King, the second African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Bunche passed away in his Queens, New York home in 1971.
Jason Sibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project.
