Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 27.6 lin. ft.

Summary

1. Personal papers, family and general correspondence, writings, field notes and research materials, working papers, office files and printed matter documenting Ralph Bunche's personal life and professional career, from his enrollment at the University of California to his retirement in 1971.
2. Family papers (1922-1988) comprise personal papers of Ralph Bunche and Ruth Harris Bunche. The Ralph Bunche subseries includes educational, medical and financial papers, passports, personal and family documents. The Ruth Harris Bunche subseries consists of general and professional correspondence, speeches and miscellaneous writings, certificates and awards, scrapbooks and printed matter.
3. The Correspondence series (1929-1971) is divided into family and general correspondence. Family correspondence consists of letters exchanged between Ralph Bunche and his wife from 1929 to 1944, letters from his aunts Nelle and Ethel Johnson, his sister Grace Robinson, his mother Olive, correspondence with his children, and occasional correspondence with other relatives. General correspondence consists of three separate files: correspondence from his residency in London in 1937, correspondence relating to his retirement in 1971, and occasional correspondence between 1928 and 1971. Noted correspondents include Walter White, Alain Locke, George Padmore, T.R. Makonnen and Eric Williams.
4. Writings are divided into two subseries: conferences and academic writings, and addresses and articles. The first subseries consists primarily of essays, articles and reviews written by Bunche, in addition to research notes and typescripts of his master's thesis "the Political Theory of Sir Robert Filmer" and his doctoral dissertation "French Administration in Togoland and Dahomey." The second subseries consists of files of Bunche's handwritten and typescript articles and speeches from 1951 to 1969. Addressed mainly to academic and university audiences and to civic and international gatherings, they deal mainly with issues of world peace and his role at the United Nations. Also included are eulogies, television interviews and acceptance speeches for prizes, awards and honorary degrees conferred on him.
5. The South Africa Research Trip series (1937) consists of letters of recommendation, field notes and correspondence with the State Department, South African officials and the Rosenwald Fund.
6. The Howard University series (1928-1941) is divided into correspondence and office files, and includes class syllabi, students' examinations and grades, lecture notes, reports and printed matter. Correspondents include Saul Bellow, Rupert Emerson, Melville Herskovits, Benjamin Azikiwe, and many of his colleagues: E.P. Davis, Emmett Dorsey, Mordecai Johnson, Charles H. Wesley, Frederick Wilinson and Eric Williams.
7. The Carnegie-Myrdal series consists of correspondence, draft manuscripts and typescripts of research memoranda written by Bunche, as well as interviews, reports and field notes prepared by Bunche, Myrdal and a staff of assistants and collaborators. These materials are arranged into five subseries: research and administrative correspondence and memoranda; research memoranda prepared by Bunche; reports, field notes and research materials filed by the name of their creators; reports, field notes and research materials filed by city, by county or by state; and printed matter. Principal contributors to this series, in addition to Bunche, include George Stoney, Whilhelmina Jackson, Gunnar Myrdal and James Jackson. Major surveys were conducted in the states of Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Materials collected include voting charts, annotated city maps indicating segregated boundaries and campaign literature.
8. The United Nations Trusteeship Council series (1946-1950) consists of working papers and mimeographed reports of the Fourth Committee of the United Nations' General Assembly, also known as the Trusteeship Council. A sub-committee of seventeen members was appointed in 1946 to examine and make recommendations to the Council on trusteeship agreements proposed for the mandated territories by the corresponding colonial governments. Working papers leading to the formation of the Sub-Committee, proceedings of its 26 meetings, the proposed agreements, in addition to amendments and modifications, statements and resolutions from the various delegations, are included in the files of the Sub-Committee. A major part of this series consists of the complete verbatim records of the 81 meetings of the Trusteeship Council at its sixth session in 1950. Also included are petitions from civic and political associations in the mandated territories challenging colonial rule on such issues as forced labor, abuse of authority and trade-union restrictions.
9. The Awards, Membership and Tributes series (1927-1984) consists of correspondence, certificates, programs, invitations and souvenir journals of luncheons, testimonial dinners and banquets held in Bunche's honor, in addition to documents relating to various memorial tributes and commemorative events following his death.
10. The Scrapbooks series (1930-1972) consists of: the Howard University Scrapbook of memorabilia and press clippings (1930-1939); the Ruth Bunche Art Student Scrapbook (1934-1935); the Voices of American Liberty Scrapbook presented to Ralph Bunche at Lord and Taylor's Nineteenth Annual Luncheon on March 18, 1956; the Ralph Bunche Hall Scrapbook of the University of California at Los Angeles; the Jane Bunche Pierce Memorial Scrapbook (1966); the Ralph Bunche Memorial Scrapbook (1971-1972), consisting of condolence letters, telegrams and sympathy cards, obituaries, memorial tributes and printed matter; and the Peace Form One Scrapbook marking the dedication ceremony of the Ralph Bunche Memorial Monument near the United Nations.
11. The Printed Matter series (1931-1971) relates primarily to Ralph Bunche, his family life and his career at the United Nations.

Subject

1. Bunche, Ralph J. (Ralph Johnson), 1904-1971
2. Bunche, Ruth Harris
3. Pierce, Jane Bunche
4. Azikiwe, Nnamdi, 1904-1996
5. Myrdal, Gunnar, 1898-1987
6. Myrdal, Alva, 1902-1986
7. Urquhart, Brian
8. Thant, U, 1909-1974
9. Filmer, Robert, Sir, -1653
10. Boas, Franz, 1858-1942
11. Dorsey, Emmett
12. Bunche, Joan
13. Bunche, Olive Johnson
14. Robinson, Grace Bunche
15. Johnson, Nellie Millie
16. Johnson, Ethel
17. Locke, Alain LeRoy, 1886-1954
18. White, Walter, 1893-1955
19. Bernadotte, Folke, 1895-1948
20. Keppel, Frederick P. (Frederick Paul), 1875-1943
21. Johnson, Charles Spurgeon, 1893-1956
22. Norgren, Paul H. (Paul Herbert)
23. Johnson, Guy Benton, 1901-1991
24. Sterner, Richard, 1901-1978
25. Stouffer, Samuel A., 1900-1960
26. Wilkerson, Doxey A. (Doxey Alphonso), 1905-1993
27. Johnson, Guion Griffis, 1900-1989
28. Davis, E. P
29. Stoney, George
30. Thompson, Charles H
31. Jackson, Whilhelmina
32. Cayton, Horace
33. Bostic, Franklin
34. Jackson, James
35. Jones, Butler A
36. Makonnen, T. R
37. Padmore, George, 1902-1959
38. Williams, Eric Eustace, 1911-1981
39. Herskovits, Melville J. (Melville Jean), 1895-1963
40. Bunch family
41. United Nations -- Palestine
42. United Nations -- Israel
43. United Nations. General Assembly. Special Committee on Palestine
44. Harvard College (1780- ). Class of 1928
45. Harvard University -- Graduate students
46. Howard University. Department of Political Science
47. Howard University
48. United Nations. Special Unit on Palestinian Rights
49. United Nations Operation in the Congo
50. United Nations -- Africa
51. Carnegie Corporation of New York
52. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
53. United Nations -- Officials and employees
54. United Nations. Trusteeship Council
55. Pan African Federation Organization
56. International African Service Bureau
57. Spingarn Medal
58. Nobel Prizes
59. African Americans -- Social conditions
60. African Americans -- Study and teaching
61. African Americans -- Economic conditions
62. African Americans -- Civil rights
63. African American universities and colleges
64. African American college teachers
65. African American teachers
66. Political scientists in government
67. African American leadership
68. Colonies -- Africa
69. International trusteeships
70. Universities and colleges, Black
71. Jewish-Arab relations -- History -- 1917-1948
72. Arab-Israeli conflict
73. Mandates -- Palestine
74. Mandates -- Cameroon
75. Mediation, International
76. Pacific settlement of international disputes
77. Decolonization
78. Pan-Africanism
79. Discrimination -- United States
80. African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc
81. Political science -- Study and teaching
82. African Americans -- Segregation -- Southern States
83. Voting -- United States
84. Palestine -- History -- Partition, 1947
85. Southern States -- Race relations
86. South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1961
87. South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1909-1948
88. South Africa -- Race relations
89. South Africa -- Social conditions
90. France -- Colonies -- Administration
91. United States -- Race relations
92. United States -- Ethnic relations
93. Palestine -- Politics and government -- 1917-1948
94. Israel -- Politics and government
95. Democratic Republic of the Congo -- History -- Civil War, 1960-1965
96. Black author

Call number

1. Sc MG 290

Language

1. English

Note

1. Photographs, recordings and artifacts have been transferred to the Photographs and Prints, Moving Images and Recorded Sound, and the Art and Artifacts divisions, respectively.

Source (note)

1. Ms. Joan Bunche
2. Ms. Joan Bunche.

Biography (note)

1. Scholar, diplomat and statesman. Born in 1904 of a working class family in Detroit, Michigan, Bunche graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1927 and the Harvard Graduate School in 1928. He married Ruth Harris in 1930. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1906, she graduated from Alabama State Normal and the Minor Normal School in Washington, D.C., where she worked as a teacher in the city's public schools. The Bunche couple had three children: Joan, Jane and Ralph, Jr.
2. In 1928, Bunche became a lecturer and later the chairman of the Department of Political Science at Howard University. His monograph "A World view of Peace" was published in 1936. In 1938, he joined the staff of the Carnegie Corporation in conducting and organizing a comprehensive survey of the social, political and economic status of blacks in the United States. Entitled "The Negro in America," the survey was based on the field work and extensive research memoranda prepared by a staff of scholars and collaborators. Bunche contributed four studies to the project: "A Brief and Tentative Analysis of Negro Leadership," "Conceptions and Ideologies of the Negro Problem," "The Political Status of the Negro" and "The Programs, Ideologies, Tactics and Achievements of Negro Betterment and Interracial Organizations."
3. During the Second World War, Bunche worked at the Department of State as a Senior Research Analyst and as an area specialist for Africa and dependent territories. A member of the U.S. delegation at the founding of the United Nations, he was appointed in 1946 as Director of the Division of Trusteeship. He joined the Permanent Secretariat of the United Nations in 1948 with the title of Principal Director of the Trusteeship Council. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for his mediation of the Armistice Agreement between Israel and the Arab States the preceding year. He served for the next twenty years as Special Assistant for Political Affairs to the Secretary General. Ralph Bunche retired from the United Nations in 1971, the year of his death.

Indexes/finding aids (note)

1. Finding aid available at repository: folder level control.

Author

1. Bunche, Ralph J. (Ralph Johnson), 1904-1971.

Title

1. Ralph Bunche papers, 1922-1988.

Biography

1. Scholar, diplomat and statesman. Born in 1904 of a working class family in Detroit, Michigan, Bunche graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1927 and the Harvard Graduate School in 1928. He married Ruth Harris in 1930. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1906, she graduated from Alabama State Normal and the Minor Normal School in Washington, D.C., where she worked as a teacher in the city's public schools. The Bunche couple had three children: Joan, Jane and Ralph, Jr.
2. In 1928, Bunche became a lecturer and later the chairman of the Department of Political Science at Howard University. His monograph "A World view of Peace" was published in 1936. In 1938, he joined the staff of the Carnegie Corporation in conducting and organizing a comprehensive survey of the social, political and economic status of blacks in the United States. Entitled "The Negro in America," the survey was based on the field work and extensive research memoranda prepared by a staff of scholars and collaborators. Bunche contributed four studies to the project: "A Brief and Tentative Analysis of Negro Leadership," "Conceptions and Ideologies of the Negro Problem," "The Political Status of the Negro" and "The Programs, Ideologies, Tactics and Achievements of Negro Betterment and Interracial Organizations."
3. During the Second World War, Bunche worked at the Department of State as a Senior Research Analyst and as an area specialist for Africa and dependent territories. A member of the U.S. delegation at the founding of the United Nations, he was appointed in 1946 as Director of the Division of Trusteeship. He joined the Permanent Secretariat of the United Nations in 1948 with the title of Principal Director of the Trusteeship Council. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for his mediation of the Armistice Agreement between Israel and the Arab States the preceding year. He served for the next twenty years as Special Assistant for Political Affairs to the Secretary General. Ralph Bunche retired from the United Nations in 1971, the year of his death.

Indexes

1. Finding aid available at repository: folder level control.

Source

1. Ms. Joan Bunche Gift SCM 90-1 Two trunks, one suitcase and a small airline bag.
2. Ms. Joan Bunche. Gift. 199012 SCM 90-99 58 cartons and one trunk, containing personal and family papers, art and artifact materials, photographs, audio-visual documents, books and articles of clothing.

Connect to:

1. Finding Aid

Local subject

1. Black author.

Research call number

1. Sc MG 290