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Sample Entry |
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Ralph Bunche
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Ralph Bunche as a baby.
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RALPH BUNCHE WENT TO SCHOOL in all those cities, as the family moved around. In 1914, they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ralph was an excellent student, although one of his early teachers said he liked to talk in class.
Sadly, by the time he was 14, both Ralph's parents were dead. He moved to Los Angeles, where he lived with his grandmother. Ralph said she was a great influence on him. She always encouraged him to do his best, and to succeed. When school officials wanted to put Ralph in a "general" high school program because he was black, she put her foot down. She insisted he be given tough academic courses, because he was going to college.
Ralph proved his grandmother right. He was an outstanding student, and also a fine athlete and debater. In 1922, Bunche graduated from Jefferson High School first in his class. He faced racial discrimination again that year. The city's honor society wouldn't let him be a member, only because he was black. But he didn't let that stop his plans.
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Ralph Bunch was an outstanding athlete at UCLA, playing basketball, football, and baseball.
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Bunche went on to graduate school at Harvard University. He studied political science, and received his master's degree in 1928. That same year, Bunche began teaching at Howard University. He started the school's political science department. He combined teaching with working on a Ph.D. in Government and International Relations at Harvard. As part of his research, he traveled to Africa. That experience helped to determine his life's work. Bunche completed his Ph.D. in 1934. He was the first African-American to earn a doctoral degree in his field from Harvard.
In a career that spanned more than 40 years, Bunche had three main interests. He was devoted to Civil Rights in his own country, to helping nations of Africa achieve self-government, and to peace in the Middle East.
GETTING INVOLVED IN CIVIL RIGHTS: Bunche was actively involved in the Civil Rights movement. He had suffered from discrimination first hand, so he knew the problems facing blacks. He'd faced it in school, when he was denied membership in his high school's honor society. Later, as a high-ranking government officer, he couldn't buy a house in restricted areas of Washington, D.C.
Bunche believed that African-Americans needed to join together and fight for equal rights. He felt that racism was wrong everywhere, in the U.S. and the world. In 1936, he helped to form the National Negro Congress. That was an early African-American group that fought for equal rights.
Bunch served on the board of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) for 22 years. In 1949, the organization gave him the Springarn Medal, its most important award. He was a powerful speaker and writer on Civil Rights, too. He wrote a book in 1936 about segregation in the U.S. He joined Martin Luther King Jr. for the march on Washington in 1963 and the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. An honored leader, Bunche was given the Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
SCHOLAR AND TEACHER: As a scholar, Bunche taught at Howard University from 1928 to 1950. He also taught at Harvard and served on the Board of Education in New York City.
PUBLIC SERVANT: Bunche is best known as one of the finest public servants of the 20th century. Beginning in 1941, and continuing until his death in 1971, he served the U.S. government and the United Nations as a tireless advocate for peace and human rights.
In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt named Bunche the African specialist for the Office of Strategic Services. In that job, he was able to promote his deeply-held belief that nations need to determine their own futures. The countries of Africa at that time were mostly colonies of Western European nations. As such, they were not in control of their own governments. Bunche's goal was to lead the nations of Africa to self-determination.
In 1944, Bunche joined the U.S. State Department. That is the division of government that determines and directs U.S. foreign policy all over the world. Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell have served as Secretary of State, the title of the head of the State Department.
At the State Department, Bunche became the first African-American to head a federal division in the government. He was named chief of the Division of Dependent Affairs in 1945.
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Ralph Bunche and Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India.
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JOINING THE UNITED NATIONS: In 1945, Bunche helped to write the "Charter," or governing document, that established the United Nations (UN). The next year, he became Director of the UN Trusteeship Division. That means he oversaw the nations that were former colonies, and to help them achieve self-government. The process was called "decolonization," and Bunche was its champion.
Bunche stated his goals. 'To provide for the economic, social, and political development of the peoples in trust territories to insure their rights and their freedoms and set as an ultimate goal their self-government or independence."
WORKING FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Bunche next became involved in one of the most difficult issues in modern world politics. In 1947, he became involved in the recognition of the new nation of Israel. The country of Israel is on territory that has been fought over for centuries. After Israel was created, angry bordering nations began a war. That conflict, known as the Arab-Israeli War, raged from 1948 to1949.
Bunche was called upon to find peace among the warring nations. He worked on the final agreement, and helped end the conflict in 1949. For his efforts, he won the Nobel Prize.
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Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, and Bunche
at the United Nations, 1964 |
THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE: In 1950, Bunche was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. That is one of the most important awards in the world. It is given every year to the individual, or individuals, who work for peace. He was the first person of color to receive the award.
LATER CAREER: In 1955, Bunche became the undersecretary of the UN. In that role, he led the UN's peacekeeping forces around the world. The Secretary General of the UN, Dag Hammarskjold, named Bunche to head the International Atomic Energy Agency. In particular, Bunche worked to insure that the world would develop nuclear energy for peaceful uses.
RALPH BUNCHE’S HOME AND FAMILY: Bunche met Ruth Harris at Howard University. They married in 1930. They had three children, Joan, Jane, and Ralph, Jr. In bad health, Bunche retired from the UN in 1971. He died shortly after his retirement, on December 9, 1971. He was 68 years old.
HIS LEGACY: Bunche is remembered as an outstanding statesman devoted to Civil Rights at home and peace throughout the world. He was brilliant and compassionate, and dedicated those gifts to the service of humanity. Throughout his career, he remained positive about his mission. "I am a professional optimist. If I were not a professional optimist through 21 years of UN service, I would be crazy. You have to be optimistic in this work or get out of it. That is, optimistic in the sense of assuming that there is no problem which cannot be solved."
WORLD WIDE WEB SITES:
http://www.pbs.org/ralphbunche/
