The document presents selected slides from the centenary celebration of Ralph J. Bunche, detailing his early life, education, and significant contributions to society. It highlights his family background, struggles with racism during his education, achievements at UCLA, and his role in founding the political science department at Howard University. Additionally, it outlines Bunche's work with the United Nations, including his leadership in the trusteeship division and involvement in drafting reports on Palestine.

1. Selected slides from the
Centenary Celebration of
Ralph J. Bunche exhibit that
was on display in UCLA
Library Special Collections in
March of 2004.

2. Ralph Bunche’s mother, Olive Johnson, met
his father, Fred Bunche, in Michigan City,
Indiana. When the Johnson family moved to
Detroit, Fred went along. There Fred and
Olive were married, and on August 7, 1903,
Ralph was born.

3. Ralph J. Bunche, portrait at around age 6 – c. 1910

4. The extended family moved to Albuquerque in 1914-15 in the hope of
improving the health of Olive and her brother Charlie, both of whom
were suffering from tuberculosis. Fred left in October 1916,
ostensibly to find work, but he did not return. Bunche never saw him
again, although his father briefly got in touch with the family once, in
1928, and Bunche tried unsuccessfully to reach him through his
second wife many years later. For the rest of his life, Bunche kept a
tiepin his father had given him among his most treasured belongings.
Less than six months after his father left, his mother died; she was
only thirty-five years old, Ralph was thirteen, and his younger sister,
Grace, was eight. Three months later, his uncle Charlie, depressed
about his own health, committed suicide.

5. CLICK
“Best Advice I Ever Had”
For Reader’s Digest, March 1955
By Ralph J. Bunche

6. Olive and Ralph Bunche in Albuquerque, c. 1913

7. Stricken with grief and with no reason to
remain in Albuquerque, Bunche’s
grandmother moved her diminished family to
Los Angeles in 1917. To signal the start of a
new life for Ralph and Grace, she added an
“e” to their last name, which from then on
was spelled “Bunche.”

8. Ralph J. Bunche and Grace
Bunche on steps, Spring 1914

9. Born in 1855 in Sedalia, Missouri, Lucy Taylor was the daughter of a slave
and an Irish landowner. She met her husband-to-be, Thomas Johnson, at a
night school in Illinois, and when he died of malaria, she raised their five
surviving children alone by working at a variety of jobs.
Ralph Bunche recalled his grandmother, whom everyone called “Nana,” in
this essay for the second volume of This I Believe, based on Edward R.
Murrow’s radio program of the same title: “In worldly matters, she believed
that every person, without regard to race or religion, has a virtually sacred
right to dignity and respect; that all men are brothers and are entitled to be
treated as equals and to enjoy equality of opportunity; that principle,
integrity, and self-respect are never to be worn as loose garments. For each
of us in that family these beliefs, almost automatically, came to be part of
our very being.” Nana died in 1928.

10. Nana, Ralph Bunche's maternal grandmother, portrait, 1890s (?)

11. CLICK
Nana Lit the Beacons
By Ralph J. Bunche
1954

12. Ralph J. Bunche’s junior high class, c. 1915

13. CLICK
Letter from Cecilia R. Irvine
June 10, 1959
Ralph Bunche’s letter to Irvine, one of his high-school teachers,
upon her retirement indicates the value he placed on his early
education as well as the thoughtfulness that friends and
acquaintances noted about him throughout his life. Her reply
gives a glimpse of him as a young man, although one might
consider whether her recollections were influenced by all he had
achieved by that date, including the Nobel Peace Prize.

14. Ethel Johnson, Ralph J. Bunche, Alma Dreyfus Johnson – c. 1920

15. Bunche had been enrolled in vocational classes
in ninth grade, as blacks almost always were at
that time, since they were not expected to go
to college. When Nana found out, she insisted
that the principal enroll him in classes that
would prepare him for college.

16. Although he was the only black student in his high-school class, Bunche did not
recall any overt racism, with one major exception:
. . . in my senior year in high school, my race and not my grades had kept me out
of the city-wide high school honour society . . . . The names of prospective
honourees were read off at a meeting of the Senior Class . . . . Since my grades
were the highest in the class, I had expected to be included. When my name was
omitted, I instinctively assumed it was because of my race, and so did some of
my classmates and at least one of my teachers, who immediately expressed to
me their indignation that my colour should have been held against me. I was
humiliated and deeply wounded, and on angry impulse decided to leave school,
abandon graduation and never return. But after a while I . . . subdued my
emotions, decided that I could get along without the honour society, and finally
found myself delivering the commencement address at graduation. I assumed
that the latter was a ‘consolation prize’ for me.
“

17. Ralph J. Bunche and Jefferson High School classmates – January 11, 1922

18. Ralph Bunche enrolled at UCLA in 1927, then known as the
Southern Branch of the University of California and located on
Vermont Avenue. The recipient of an academic scholarship, he
played on the football team until a leg injury football forced him
to switch to basketball. He became a defensive specialist on a
team that won three consecutive Southern Conference
championships, and the three miniature golden basketballs he
earned for this accomplishment remained treasured possessions
for the rest of his life. Although Bunche acknowledged that he
was not a natural athlete, his competitive instinct and his
dedication to team play would serve him well throughout his life.

19. CLICK
“That Man May Dwell in Peace”
In this speech for the Southern Branch Debating Society, Ralph
Bunche anticipated his later efforts with the United Nations: “The
proposal which I would present as an antidote for world ‘war-
poisoning’ is centered about two basic principles, essential,
believe, to any rational peace plan. These are International
Organization, involving every nation of the world; and the full
development of the ‘International Mind or Will.’”

20. Ralph J. Bunche playing basketball, UCLA, 1927

21. A white teammate from Louisiana initially
complained to the coach that his parents wouldn’t
allow him to play with a black man; the coach’s
response was to suggest that the Louisiana
student turn in his uniform. He stayed and joined
Bunche in the backcourt, and the two became
friends.

22. Ralph J. Bunche holding basketball, c. 1926-1927

23. In addition to his athletic endeavors, Ralph Bunche excelled
academically at UCLA and considered pursuing the study of law, a
common professional route for blacks at that time. He was
actively involved with oratory and debate on campus; when the
official debating society refused to accept him as a member, he
and his friends formed the Southern Branch Debating Society,
and he served as president.
During his senior year Bunche worked at the school newspaper
and as sports editor of the yearbook. And as the top student in
his graduating class, he was named valedictorian and delivered
the commencement address.

24. Ralph J. Bunche,
UCLA portrait - June 1927

25. Ralph Bunche graduated summa cum laude with a degree in
political science. In his 1966 letter to the editor of the Daily Bruin,
he recalled the role C.H. Rieber, dean of the College of Liberal Arts,
played in his selecting the topic of the speech:
Dean Rieber could always be counted on for sage advice. When,
therefore, I was given the assignment of making a commencement
speech in June 1927, I went immediately to consult with him as to a
suitable topic for the speech. . . . So he handed me a volume of
poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay and advised me to go down to the
beach, lie on the sand, read the poems and reflect, and he was sure
that I would find a suitable subject.
“

26. CLICK
“The Fourth Dimension of Personality”
Delivered June 1927
In the speech, Bunche focused on the need to
develop a spiritual, visionary, philosophical
component in order to fully realize one’s
personality. His comments also foreshadowed his
later efforts with the United Nations.

27. In the speech he focused on the need to develop a spiritual,
visionary, philosophical component in order to fully realize one’s
personality. His comments also foreshadowed his later efforts with
the United Nations:
Man professes strict moral codes; promulgates them through great
educational systems; and solidifies them in is law. But invariably his
subsequent deeds belie and pervert his original intent. He conjures
up bitter prejudices, petty jealousies and hatreds against his fellow-
men. The world is periodically scourged and scarred by fiendish wars.
Man learns and knows but he does not do as well as he knows. This is
his weakness. The future peach and harmony of the world are
contingent upon the ability – yours and mine – to effect a remedy.
“

28. Long after his years at UCLA, Ralph Bunche kept in touch with Rieber, professor of
philosophy and dean of the College of Liberal Arts at UCLA, who was both an
advisor and a mentor to him. In this letter, sent during his first fall at Harvard
University, Bunche commented on the weather, his professors, his major, and his
first love, sports: “Harvard must be content to boast of its intellectual achievements
this year for the football team is pathetic.” On a more serious note, he declared his
determination to become a scholar:
I have definitely decided to cast my lot in the realm of the scholarly rather than the
purely legal, and from now on will bend every effort toward the attainment of the
Ph.D. The conversations which I was fortunate enough to have during my trip this
summer, with some of the leaders of my race, influenced me considerably in making
the decision. That trip was an education in itself to me and it has revealed to me
the tremendous amount of work there is for each of us to do during our short stay
on earth.
“

29. Ralph Bunche earned a fellowship from Harvard University
to pursue graduate study; although most blacks attending
college at that time were planning careers in law,
medicine, or the ministry, he decided to study political
science. His decision to become an academic was a brave
one, as he had had no black professors at UCLA or Harvard
to serve as role models, and the ranks of leading black
universities were then limited to Atlanta, Fisk, and
Howard.

30. Ralph J. Bunche,
Harvard portrait –
c. 1928

31. CLICK
“The Negro in Chicago Politics”
1928
Written while he was still working on his master’s degree at Harvard
University, Ralph Bunche’s first published article appeared in the National
Municipal Review in the May 1928 issue. In a handwritten note on the back
of the final page, Bunche wrote, “This is the ‘copy’ of my article as marked
by the editor of the magazine & sent to the printer. Just a simple article –
mere exposition, but I had to go very careful at first & be sure of my ground
before making more ‘weighty’ assertions. If I can find time I’ll get out
another soon. This helped me pass away ‘spare’ moments last semester.”

32. Founded in 1867, Howard University initially served students of
all nationalities, races, and classes. But with the rise of Jim Crow,
by the turn of the century nearly all of its students were black. At
the time Ralph Bunche was hired to establish the political science
department in 1928, the university had its first black president,
Mordecai W. Johnson, who was actively engaged in hiring young
black faculty.
Bunche taught courses in constitutional law and was extremely
popular with his students. He was considered a tough but fair
grader and was almost always available to answer questions or
write letters of recommendation.

33. Participants of a conference at Howard University – April 1932

34. Ralph J. Bunche at Howard University commencement - June 10, 1932

35. CLICK
“Academic Freedom”
November 22, 1935
In this speech at the Capitol City Forum, an
organization described as having socialist leanings,
Ralph Bunche emphasized the subject as it related
to the student rather than the researcher.

36. During his first term at Howard, Bunche also met his
future wife, Ruth Ethel Harris. They married on June
23, 1930. Their first child, Joan, was born in
December 1931; their second child, Jane, arrived in
May 1933; and their son, Ralph Jr., was born in
September 1943.

37. Ruth Bunche, portrait – 1930s

38. Ruth Ethel Harris met Ralph Bunche when a
colleague brought him to her house in October
1928. At the time she was teaching school and
taking night classes at Howard University to
complete the requirements for her bachelor’s
degree. After they met, she took one of his political
science courses; she received a B and challenged
him on the grade, but he did not change it.

39. Although Ralph Bunche had declined a fellowship in 1928 to remain at Harvard
University and pursue a doctorate, in 1929 he took leave from Howard University to
return to Harvard. He completed his coursework and passed his general examinations,
then a $400 scholarship enabled him to begin research on his dissertation.
The initial topic he chose was the League of Nations and the suppression of slavery. He
switched it to a comparison of mixed-race assimilation in Brazil with segregation in the
United States, but when he feared that the Rosenwald Fund would not support his
proposed research in Brazil, he settled on comparing the colonial administrations of
Dahomey and Togoland. He spent nine months in Europe and three months in Africa
conducting research during 1932-33, then returned to Cambridge, England, for three
more months of work in summer 1933. His four-hundred-plus-page dissertation was
accepted by his committee in February 1934. Although it was not published, he drew
from it for an article on French educational policy in Togoland and Dahomey, which
appeared the following year in the Journal of Negro Education.

40. CLICK
A World View of Race
1936
In this ninety-eight-page booklet Ralph Bunche
argued that race was an arbitrary rather than a
scientific construct and that conflict frequently
identified as racial was in reality based on social,
political, and economic causes.

41. Ralph J. Bunche and
daughters – c. 1937

42. Bunche proposed a project to study the impact on colonial
rule and Western culture on Africans to the Social Sciences
Research Council, and he earned a two-year grant.
Seeking to broaden his approach beyond the constraints
of political science, he incorporated into the grant
proposal training for himself in field methods of cultural
anthropology. He returned to Africa in 1937-38 to conduct
further research, then returned to Howard University
intending to write books on South Africa and East Africa.
However, another project intervened.

43. Ralph J. Bunche en route to
the Congo “Nyabongo, his
boy, Abidiah & me en route to
Katwe & the Congo” –1937

44. Ralph Bunche’s focus on issues related to race returned to the
domestic sphere when in 1939 he began to work with Swedish
sociologist Gunnar Myrdal on a project to survey the conditions
of blacks in America, sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation. He
spent two years on the project, which resulted in the landmark
work An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern
Democracy.
Ralph Bunche took three trips through the South under the
auspices of the study, the first with Gunnar Myrdal himself and
the second two with three field assistants, who conducted the
majority of the interviews.

45. CLICK
Report on the Needs of the Negro (for the
Republican Program Committee)
By Ralph J. Bunche, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science, Howard University
June 10, 1939

46. CLICK
The Carnegie-Myrdal study questionnaire
Study of the Negro in America
1939

47. Ralph J. Bunche with Bernie in St. Louis – September 1939

48. Ralph J. Bunche and family at the zoo – c. 1940

49. In July 1941, the Office of the Coordinator of Information (later the Office of Strategic
Services) was created to both gather and disseminate information in connection with
preparation for what looked like an inevitable war, and in September 1941 Ralph Bunche
was hired as an expert on Africa, and he also advised on general issues related to blacks in
the military.
In 1944, he joined the U.S. State Department’s postwar planning unit and participated in
the planning for the conference at Dumbarton Oaks to discuss a world organization. He
was part of the U.S. delegation to the San Francisco conference in 1945 at which the
United Nations charter was drafted, to the U.N. Preparatory Commission in London later
that year, and to the first session of the U.N. General Assembly held in London in 1946.
In April 1946, Bunche was loaned to the U.N. as acting director of the trusteeship division
for an initial period of six weeks. The loan was extended again and again at the request of
the assistant secretary-general for trusteeship until the secretary-general asked the U.S.
government to release him to assume the position of director of the trusteeship division.

50. Ralph Bunche had joined the United Nations
in 1946 as head of the trusteeship
department, and the following year he was
appointed to the U.N. Special Committee on
Palestine, for which he drafted both the
majority and minority reports.

51. Ralph J. Bunche at the First Session,
General Assembly, United Nations,
London – January 1946

52. In April 1947 the British government requested a special session of the U.N. General Assembly
to discuss Palestine, over which it had been assigned a mandate by the League of Nations in
1917. Per the terms of that mandate, increasing numbers of Jews had settled in Palestine, and
conflicts between them and Arabs had escalated. The General Assembly created a Special
Committee on Palestine to investigate the situation and Secretary-General Trygve Lie
appointed Ralph Bunche as assistant to his representative on the committee. Bunche worked
with the committee throughout the summer, drafted its majority and minority reports, then
returned to his responsibilities in the trusteeship division.
A contentious General Assembly vote on November 29, 1947, approved the establishment of
separate Arab and Jewish states following the withdrawal of British troops and created a
commission to manage the transition, to which Bunche was appointed. However, after the
last British soldiers left on May 14, 1948, tensions escalated further, and troops from Arab
countries moved in. That same day the General Assembly created the position of mediator, to
which the Security Council appointed Count Folke Bernadotte; Lie named Bunche to assist
Bernadotte and to serve as the secretary-general’s representative in Palestine. The U.N.
representatives arrived in the Middle East on May 27 and managed to secure a ceasefire on
June 11.

53. When war broke out between the Arabs and Israelis in
May 1948, U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie appointed
Bunche to assist mediator Count Folke Bernadotte and to
serve as the secretary-general’s representative in
Palestine. Negotiations continued throughout the
summer.

54. Countess Estelle Bernadotte, Count
Folke Bernadotte and Ralph J. Bunche
at Parkway Village, New York –
August 1948

55. Bernadotte was assassinated in September 1948 by
members of a Jewish underground group opposed to the
partition.
Following Bernadotte’s assassination, Bunche became
acting mediator.

56. Acting U.N. Mediator, Ralph J. Bunche, in Palestine, 1948

57. After six more months of delicate, demanding
negotiations led by Bunche, armistice agreements
were signed by Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,
and Syria.

58. Egyptian-Israeli Armistice Agreement signed, February 24, 1949

59. Ralph J. Bunche, along with Eleanor
Roosevelt, was considered instrumental in
the creation and adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.

60. Ralph J. Bunche with Eleanor Roosevelt at award dinner at the
Waldorf Astoria – May 9, 1949

61. Ralph J. Bunche with Henry Moon, Roy Wilkins, and Will Rogers, Jr. at the
1949 NAACP Convention in Los Angeles, Calif – July 1949

62. Ralph Bunche Day declared in Los Angeles - 1949

63. Bunche announced the completion of his
mission in July 1949.
CLICK
Statement by Dr. Ralph Bunche, UN Acting Mediator on
Palestine, before the Security Council on 4 August, 1949

64. UCLA invited its distinguished alumnus to deliver the
commencement address in 1950 and awarded him a
honorary degree. Ralph Bunche began his speech in a light
tone, sharing an anecdote from his own graduation about
the academic gown he had borrowed for the occasion
from a female student at USC and noting his close
identification with his alma mater – “I am a Bruin. I have
always been proud of that distinction . . . .”

65. Ralph J. Bunche delivering address to the
class, UCLA commencement held at the
Hollywood Bowl - June 18, 1950

66. He then moved on to more serious topics, including countering “reckless charges and
insinuations” against those in the government, rebutting criticisms of the United
Nations, and warning of the dangers of the Cold War –
I think it unfortunate that the existing differences between West and East, sharp as they
may be, have come to be described as the ‘cold war’. In an atomic age, in the interest of
humanity, even slogans should be chosen with care. Human differences can be settled,
but a war, cold or hot, has to be fought, won or lost.
Near the end, he observed with characteristic pragmatism:
The peoples of the world are today confronted with the greatest challenge in human
history. The challenge can be met only by constructive action. Negativism,
recrimination, self-righteousness, serve no worthy purpose. In the world of today, there
are motes of many kinds in many eyes.
“
“

67. In 1950, Bunche was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for
his successful mediation of armistice agreements between
Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
It was the first (and so far the only) time that all parties in
the Middle East conflict signed armistice agreements with
Israel.

68. In addition to Bunche, the candidates for the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1950 were Jawaharlal Nehru, prime
minister of India; Winston Churchill, former prime
minister of Great Britain; George Marshall, U.S.
secretary of defense; and Harry Truman, U.S.
president.

69. Bunche was in the United Nations Delegates
dining room in September 1950 when his
secretary gave him the news; his first impulse
was to give the award back, reasoning “peace-
making at the U.N. was not done for prizes.”
However, the secretary-general persuaded him
to accept the award on behalf of the entire
organization.

70. CLICK
Statement by Dr. Ralph Bunche on receiving
news of award of Nobel Prize for Peace
September 22, 1950
In September 1950, Bunche received a cable
informing him that he had won the Nobel
Peace Prize for his efforts.

71. CLICK
“Ralph Bunche”: Address delivered by
Governor Gunnar Jahn at the presentation of
the Nobel Peace Prize
December 10, 1950

72. Gunnar Jahn, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, and
Ralph J. Bunche at the 1950 Nobel Prize presentation
ceremony – December 10, 1950

73. CLICK
Some Reflections on peace in our Time: Nobel
Lecture, delivered at Oslo, December 11, 1950
By Ralph J. Bunche
Stockholm 1951

74. I am but one of many cogs in the United Nations, the
greatest peace organization ever dedicated to the
salvation of mankind’s future on earth. It is, indeed,
itself an honor to enabled to practice the arts of peace
“
-- Nobel Peace Prize acceptance, December 10, 1950

75. May there be, in our time, at long last, a world at peace
in which we, the people, may for once begin to make
full use of the great good that is in us.“ -- Nobel Peace Prize acceptance, December 10, 1950

76. Congratulatory certificate from
Ralph Bunche, Jr. to his father,
Ralph J. Bunche - 1950

77. Ralph Bunche returned to his trusteeship duties following
his mission in Palestine. In 1952, Secretary-General Trygve
Lie announced that he was stepping down; his
replacement, Dag Hammarskjöld, undertook a
reorganization of the Secretariat that resulted in Bunche’s
appointment as an undersecretary general for special
political affairs. In the ensuing years he coordinated and
administered peacekeeping efforts in the Sinai in 1956,
Congo in 1960, Cyprus in 1962, Yemen in 1963, and
between India and Pakistan in 1965.

78. CLICK
Telegram, 1957 January 8, New York, NY to the Reverends
Martin Luther King, G.K. Steele and Erle Shuttlesworth,
Atlanta, GA

79. United Nations Under-Secretary Bunche comes to Gaza - 1957

80. Ambassador Alex Quaison-Sackey, Prime Minister
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ambassador Diallo Telli and Ralph
Bunche at the International House – July 19, 1959

81. Ralph J. Bunche gardening – October 19, 1959

82. CLICK
Press Conference on the Republic of Congo by
Dr. Ralph Bunche at the UN Headquarters on
Thursday, 1 September 1960

83. Ralph J. Bunche at the United Nations – c. 1960

84. Ralph J. Bunche and Josephine Baker – c. 1960

85. On the flight depicted in the next slide, Bunche was
escorting Cyrille Adoula, prime minister of Congo, to talks
organized by the United Nations and the United States
between Adoula and Moise Tshombe, president of the
province of Katanga, which had seceded from the country.
The agreement reached at these talks began the process
of reconciling all the seceding provinces with the central
government, although problems continued to plague the
country even after reconciliation.

86. En route to talks at Kitona Base
(Congo) – December 19, 1961

87. In 1963, Bunche visited Yemen because of a conflict
between Yemen, supported by Egypt and recognized by
the United States, and South Yemen, supported by Saudi
Arabia and Jordan. The United Nations Yemen Observer
Mission was then sent in to supervise the withdrawal of
both Egyptian and Saudi forces; when that proved
ineffective, the U.N. sent a mediator, although Egyptian
forces were not withdrawn until after the 1967 Arab-
Israeli war.

88. Ralph J. Bunche and family disembarking KLM flight – 1963

89. Ralph J. Bunche arriving in Yemen – 1963

90. The next slide was taken when President Kennedy
came to address the U.N. General Assembly. During
his campaign Kennedy had asked Bunche to serve as
an advisor, and he had also been asked several times
to become a part of the administration; although he
declined all these invitations, Bunche admired
Kennedy a great deal and was deeply saddened by
his assassination.

91. President John F. Kennedy, greeted by Secretary General Thant and Under-
Secretary for Special Political Arrairs Bunche, upon his arrival at the United
Nations – September 20, 1963

92. President John F. Kennedy had selected Bunche as a
recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
which is the highest honor a civilian can receive
from the U.S. government. Bunche was informed in
October, and the presentation ceremony went
ahead as planned on December 6, 1963, following
Kennedy’s assassination, with President Johnson
awarding the medals. Bunche was the first UCLA
alum to receive this honor.

93. President Johnson awarding the Medal of Freedom to Ralph J. Bunche – 1963

94. Ralph J. Bunche confers with President Makarios – April 8, 1964

95. In 1964, Bunche led a United Nations peacekeeping force to
Cyprus, which was being torn by conflict between the Greek
Cypriot majority and the Turkish Cypriot minority. He visited
various areas of the island and saw the devastation of the conflict
firsthand, including homeless families and destroyed dwellings.
Letter, 1964 May 5, Nicosia, Cyprus, to Mr. Ralph Bunche, United
Nations Under-Secretary for Political Affairs, New York, NY
CLICK

96. Bunche was an active supporter of the Civil
Rights movement. He participated in the 1963
March on Washington.
CLICK
Ralph Bunche on civil rights: interview with Mr. Woody
Klein, New York World-Telegram

97. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott
King visit United Nations Headquarters – 1964

98. Ralph J. Bunche visits Cyprus – April 10, 1964

99. CLICK
Statement by Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, Under-Secretary of the United
Nations, on the rioting in Los Angeles
17 August, 1965

100. CLICK
On April 15, 1966, Hosie sent Ralph Bunche a letter inviting him
to submit an article about UCLA for publication in a special
edition. Bunche was unable to meet the deadline but instead
shared a few personal recollections of his years on the old
Vermont Avenue campus and his relationships with his
classmates and professors.
Letter to Ronald W. Hosie, editor of the UCLA Daily Bruin
April 21, 1966

101. CLICK
Personal Statement by Dr. Ralph J. Bunche on the assassination
of Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 5, 1968

102. Ralph Bunche’s final visit to UCLA came about a year and a half before his
death, when the social sciences building was dedicated in his honor. In his
remarks he credited the central role UCLA played in shaping him: “. . . UCLA
is where it all began for me, where in a sense I began. College for me was
the genesis and the catalyst.”
He went on to discuss hot-button topics then current on campus, including
the war in Vietnam. Although cautious about commenting on foreign policy
as a United Nations official, he noted that his son was in the service and
hoped for the withdrawal of American troops. He acknowledged the danger
of such a move but judged it worth trying:
Peace, like war, can usually be won only by bold and courageous initiatives
and by taking some deliberate, calculated risks.
“

103. Ralph J. Bunche delivering a speech at the
Bunche Hall dedication ceremony, UCLA –
May 1969

104. UCLA was where it all began for me, where in a sense I
began. College for me was the genesis and the catalyst.
“ -- Remarks at the dedication of Ralph Bunche Hall on May 23, 1969
CLICK

105. Ralph J. Bunche and Charles E. Young in
front of Bunche Hall, UCLA - 1969

106. Ralph J. Bunche and Charles E. Young in
front of Bunche Hall, UCLA - 1969

107. Ruth Bunche, Ralph J. Bunche, and Lew
Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) in front of
Bunche Hall, UCLA - 1969

108. Bunche resigned from his position at the UN
due to ill health. He died on December 9, 1971,
at age 68. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery
in the Bronx, New York.

109. CLICK
The Ideal Scrap Book:
Scrapbook of Ralph J. Bunche ephemera
1920-1950s