Bunche, Ralph

Bunche, Ralph (b. 7 Aug. 1904, d. 9 Dec. 1971). UN diplomat Born in Detroit and educated at Harvard, he taught political science at Harvard and Howard Universities. In 1944, he published a major book on race relations, An American Dilemma. During World War II he served with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the State Department, joined the UN Secretariat in 1946, and served on the Palestine Peace Commission in 1947. Following the assassination of Count Bernadotte in 1948 he carried on negotiations with such skill that he was able to arrange an armistice between the warring Arabs and Jews. For this he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, the first awarded to an African American. He served as director of the Trusteeship Division of the UN 1948–54 and then, until his death, as Under-Secretary for Political Affairs. As such he was responsible for UN peacekeeping ventures in Suez (1956), the Congo (1960), and Cyprus (1964).