Dr. Ralph Bunche ’27

With so many accomplishments to consider, it's difficult deciding what to highlight when discussing Dr. Ralph Bunche '27. Bunche, for whom UCLA's Bunche Hall is named, is truly an American legend, and presenting an Academy Award is perhaps the least of his accomplishments.

From humble family beginnings in Detroit and South Central Los Angeles, Bunche achieved many firsts in a social environment that was often hostile toward African-American people. He forged groundbreaking careers in academia, in the civil rights movement and in international civil service.

Bunche was the first African-American – indeed, the first person of color of any origin – to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. He received this international honor in 1950 for his success as United Nations mediator in bringing about the 1949 Rhodes armistices between Israel and the neighboring nations of Egypt, Jordon, Lebanon and Syria.

The award was a highlight of Bunche's wide-ranging activities, which included playing pioneering roles in race relations, human rights, decolonization, international mediation and peacekeeping. His legacy lives on around the world and in the halls of the U.N, which he helped create in 1945. For two decades, as Undersecretary-General – the highest position ever held by an American in the U.N. – Bunche played a leading role in the conception and conduct of the U.N.'s peacekeeping function. From 1946 until his death in 1971, Bunche served the cause of peace as an international civil servant.

In 2001, filmmaker William Greaves debuted his cinematic portrait, Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey at the annual Sundance Film Festival. The documentary subsequently picked up top awards at two other international film festivals and became the first in a series of documentaries Greaves created for PBS.

Today, Bunche is remembered each year at UCLA as deserving scholars from traditionally underrepresented communities are selected to receive Dr. Ralph J. Bunche Scholarships, bestowed as part of the UCLA Alumni Association's Alumni Scholarships.

To read more about Bunche, visit sites devoted to his centenary, the Nobel Prize and to the PBS documentary. Find out about UCLA Alumni Scholarships here.