Ralph Bunche earned a PhD from Harvard, taught at Harvard, marched with Dr. King, and negotiated peace in the Middle East. He wasn’t allowed to join a country club in his neighborhood.
Ralph Johnson Bunche (August 7, 1903 or 1904 – December 9, 1971) was born in Detroit, Michigan but moved to New Mexico at age 10 in hopes the drier climate would help his parents failing health. Sadly, both of his parents died within two years of the move. He was raised by his grandmother, a former slave. He graduated high school as valedictorian and a four-sport athlete. He attended UCLA, supported by a basketball scholarship and a janitorial job. He graduated valedictorian from UCLA with a degree in international relations. By the age of 31, he earned a master’s degree and a PhD in political science from Harvard with the help of a scholarship and thousands of dollars raised by the black community of Los Angeles.
He taught at Howard University and Harvard University. He served as a board member of the New York City Board of Education.
He was a member of the Black Council who consulted with President Roosevelt’s administration on racial issues. He helped lead civil rights marches alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., was an active member of the NAACP, and advocated for his entire life that justice is color-blind.
However, none of that is why Ralph Bunche made this list of inspirational black people.
In 1947, Bunche served as an assistant on the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, then principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission. In this capacity, he traveled to the middle east as a UN negotiator. His partner was assassinated while there, making Bunche the lead negotiator for the UN in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. He negotiated with Israeli representative, Moshe Dayan. Their negotiations, often over billiards, resulted in the 1949 Armistice Agreements. For his contributions, Ralph Bunche was awarded the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize. Bunche was the first black person to ever win the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Despite everything he had done for peace in the United States and throughout the world, he was still a black man. In 1959, he was denied membership in the West Side Tennis Club in New York City.
Ralph Bunche died at the age of 68.
TL;DR
- Ralph Bunche earned a PhD from Harvard when black people were still refused admission into many universities around the United States.
- Bunche was integral in negotiating and end to the Arab-Israeli Conflict of the late 1940s.
- After winning the Nobel Prize, Bunche still faced racial discrimination in his own neighborhood.
What You Should Do Now:
- Read this profile of Ralph Bunche on the Nobel Prize website.
- Read the transcript of Bunche’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
28 Days of Inspirational Black People:
- Ed Brooke
- Blanche Bruce
- Andrew Young
- Denys Cowan
- Antoine Fuqua
- John Singleton
- Countee Cullen
- Dennis Kimetto
- Robert Hayden
- Lee Daniels
- Anthony Mackie/Falcon
- Val James
- Abebe Bikila
- Steve McQueen
- Ernest J. Gaines
- Charlie Sifford
- Matt Baker
- Black Panther
- A.G. Gaston
- Bradford Young
- Paul Laurence Dunbar
- Guion Bluford
- Carter G. Woodson
Thanks for educating me!