Williams Alumni Review, Volume XKIII, Number 4, July 1951 [part of issue]

201-202 p. 1 sheet, text on both sides. One illustration on page 202. Article by Ralphe Bunche on "Peace Today". Taken from remarks made when he recieved an honorary degree. From Wikipedia: "Ralph Johnson Bunche (August 7, 1903 (disputed) or 1904 December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was the first African American and person of color to be so honored in the history of the prize. He was involved in the formation and administration of the United Nations. In 1963, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy. For more than two decades, Bunche served as chair of the Department of Political Science at Howard University (1928 to 1950), where he also taught generations of students. He served as a member of the Board of Overseers of his alma mater, Harvard University (1960 1965), as a member of the board of the Institute of International Education, and as a trustee of Oberlin College, Lincoln University, and New Lincoln School. Bunche was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1903 or 1904 and baptized at the city's Second Baptist Church. His father, Fred, was a barber, while his mother, Olive Agnes (nee Johnson), was an amateur musician, from a "large and talented family." Her siblings included Charlie and Ethel Johnson. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Nelson Johnson, was the son of Eleanor Madden and her husband; she was the daughter of an African-American slave mother and Irish planter father. Johnson, who graduated from Shurtleff College in Alton, Illinois in 1875, also taught there. That September he married Lucy Taylor, one of his students. Fred Bunche is believed to have had Bunch and other ancestors who were established as free people of color in Virginia before the American Revolution. The Bunch/Bunche surname was extremely rare. In 2012 researchers published evidence showing that Bunch male descendants can be traced through historical records and y-DNA analysis to John Punch, an African indentured servant sentenced to life service in 1640, and considered to be the first slave in Virginia. President Barack Obama is also believed to be among Bunch's many descendants, through his mother's family. Several generations of the Bunch men, free people of color, married white women from the British Isles, who were free. Bunche was a brilliant student, a debater, and the valedictorian of his graduating class at Jefferson High School. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and graduated summa cum laude in 1927 as the valedictorian of his class. Using the money his community raised for his studies and a graduate scholarship at Harvard University, he earned a doctorate in political science. To help with his living expenses while at Harvard, Bunche sought a job at a local bookstore. The owner offered him a part-time job, and Bunche ran the store to his employer's satisfaction. One day the owner called him into the office and said, "Folks tell me you're a Negro. I don't give a damn, but are you? " Bunche asked, "What did you think? " and the owner said, "I couldn't see you clear enough." Bunche was multiracial, and showed his European and African ancestry. Bunche earned a master's degree in political science in 1928 and a doctorate in 1934, while he was already teaching in Howard University's Department of Political Science. At the time, it was typical for doctoral candidates to start teaching before completion of their dissertations. He was the first African American to gain a PhD in political science from an American university. He published his first book, World View of Race, in 1936. From 1936 to 1938, Ralph Bunche conducted postdoctoral research in anthropology at the London School of Economics (LSE), and later at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. During World War II, Bunche worked in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the CIA, as a senior soci. …