Ralph Bunche: Model Negro or American Other? by Charles P. Henry (Review)
I find forgotten figures of history to be quite interesting. Charles Evans Hughes is one example (Governor of New York, Justice of the Supreme Court, Secretary of State, and the GOP nominee for President who nearly defeated Woodrow Wilson). Ralph Bunche is another individual who I can’t quite understand why history fails to remember his contributions to the United States.
Despite my background as a political-science major and my deep love of history, I first encountered Bunche through a children’s book I bought my daughters. The Valuetales Series offers biographies with a little cartoon who accompanies each featured subject like a Jiminy Cricket voice of conscience. Benjamin Franklin has a penny who joins him on his adventures (The Value of Saving). Abraham Lincoln had a pet squirrel (The Value of Respect), and Marie Curie always had a bubbly beaker by her side (The Value of Learning). Ralph Bunche’s Valuetale, The Value of Responsibility? There the author gave Ralph a little umpire who joined him as Bunche became a statesman across the world (The Value of Responsibility). While perhaps fitting, I’m not sure an umpire and responsibility captures the imagination quite like the other historical figures, which may speak to Bunche’s forgotten nature.
For those who don’t know, Ralph Bunche was a political scientist and diplomat. His efforts in Israel in the 1940s earned him the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize, which made him the first African American to win the honor. He was also a civil-rights leader who marched alongside MLK and he was instrumental in forming the United Nations. Further, Bunche at one time had more honorary degrees there any living American. Despite this record, you seldom hear mention of Ralph Bunche.
I chose, Ralph Bunche: Model Negro or American Other? by Dr. Charles P. Henry because of Henry’s rich credentials. He is Professor Emeritus of African American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, and he has a great breadth of experience outside of academia to complement his lengthy list of publications. Dr. Henry’s biography is immensely informative and is a worthwhile read. I will note, however, that I regularly felt like the book veered toward a political-science book more so than a biography. This framework may have been intentional on Dr. Henry’s part, but it is worth noting for readers considering the book.
As for my recommendation, I think this book is ideal for those who love history, political science, or exploring great people who time has neglectfully forgotten. Dr. Henry provides a helpful book to both understand who Ralph Bunche is while also exploring why he is too often a footnote. Here are some of my takeaways from the book:
Dr. Henry’s prologue begins by quoting a W.E.B. Du Bois and his famous analysis on duality: “One Ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” Henry then contrasted Du Bois and Ralph Bunche: Du Bois as the consummate outsider who gave up his citizenship and Bunche as the consummate insider who strived to redefine “the concept of Americana to include the African American experience.” This analysis helped set the stage for the rest of the book.
Bunche’s grandmother largely raised Ralph, and these were the core principles she taught:
“No false pride, be humble but never lose self-respect and dignity; never pick a fight but never run from one if you are sure you're right; be honest always, live by your conscience, you can never be happy otherwise; the United States is a democracy and you can surmount barriers of race.” Dr. Henry painted a rich picture of Bunche’s grandmother, Lucy Taylor Johnson. She struck me as someone who was a person worth knowing.
One story captured by Dr. Henry stood out to highlight Johnson’s strength. “On one occasion a door-to-door salesman attempted to her a family plot in a cemetery. He assured her that they would not have to be worried about being buried next to Blacks because his company “never sold burial plots to *******.” Lucy asked the salesman to repeat himself and then excused herself and went to the kitchen. She cam back a full charge with a brook in her hand and chased him out of the house shouting, “I am a Negro and proud of it!” Bunche’s former teacher remembered Ralph as the model of confidence, which she suspected emanated from his grandmother. This story supports that conclusion.
Ralph’s education in Los Angeles contributed to his future success. He attended in the early 1900s, yet still enjoyed an integrated school. This meant he competed against and succeeded as part of the predominantly white students. Bunche’s success in this setting led to his future opportunities.
Bunche provides numerous examples of how superficial prejudices can be. There were multiple examples of his light skin providing opportunities that would not be available to individuals with darker skin. An early example occurred when he started grad school. He needed work and was hired for a good salary at a used bookstore. The owner later told him he probably wouldn’t have hired him if he had known Bunche was black. But by the time the owner found out, Bunche had made himself invaluable.
Bunche led one of the first picket lines in Washington, D.C. to protest segregation at the National Theater. This effort came in response to a request from one of the leads, a black a singer named, “Todd Duncan.” The effort worked but only for his production of Porgy and Bess. Despite Bunche’s picketing efforts, he was wary of such approaches. Bunche favored interracial alliances and he “didn’t see an awful lot of white people who were interested in getting in the struggle with us.”
My previous reading on FDR did not entirely cast him in a favorable light regarding race relations (in notable contrast to Eleanor Roosevelt). Yet Charles Henry presents a far more negative consensus of FDR among the black community: “In his prior career he had referred to Blacks as n*****s, helped segregate rest rooms in government buildings, supported the U.S. occupation of Haiti and claimed to have written that country's constitution (he did not), and denied having entertained Blacks at an official luncheon in New York (he did).” Until 1936, FDR never spoke to a black audience, and New Deal programs largely excluded blacks from coverage. Further, many of the farming programs were actively harmful to black sharecroppers and tenant farmers. This backdrop prompted Bunche and other black leaders to form a number of policy-oriented organizations to promote improved conditions for African Americans. During this time, the NAACP and Urban League expanded and other new organizations formed, including: the Negro Industrial League, the Joint Committee on National Recovery, and the National Negro Congress.
It is interesting how much hope was placed by American intellectuals in relation to the Soviet Union and its treatment of economics and class. Robert Oppenheimer, Ralph Bunche, and their peers seemed to have an idyllic impression of life in Russia. There seemed to be little realization as to the cruelty and violence that existed there nor was there understanding that the equality proclaimed by Soviet leaders was not an actuality. Charles Henry also made this same observation on page 79: “what is remarkable in this group [Bunche’s friends from Africa is the belief] that a U.S.S.R.-type system would protect them.”
Consider this prescient observation that Bunche made in 1940: “It must be noted that Americans are a very opportunistic and a very materialistic people. We have no traditional political theory, despite our alleged reverence for our ‘traditional institutions.’ We have demonstrated, too often, how easily we can push law, constitution and tradition aside when it suits our purpose to do so. No other country in the world boasts such fertile soil for demagogues and crackpots.” Bunche did, however, counter this cynicism with an optimism that Americans are a highly moral society, which perhaps brings these themes back to John Adams’s observation that “We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Just prior to U.S. involvement in WWII, Bunche began working for the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), an intelligence agency. Bunche found himself facing new challenges as a black man in a white-dominated environment—a tension that must have felt like he didn’t belong in either camp. Certainly, he faced discrimination from white people. The move to insider status prompted a change in Bunche according to his friends. The once blunt and radical-leaning Bunche became more cautious. As a result, Bunche faced criticism from his friends and peers in the black community. W.E.B. Du Bois commented that “Ralph Bunche is getting to be a white folks’ n****r.” He worked to advance racial causes within his purview—including integration for the army—but it must have felt like a no-win situation for Bunche.
One example of the discrimination that Bunche faced included a transfer to the State Department that no one told him about. The reason no one told him is that multiple, high-ranking officials initially objected due to Bunche’s skin color. Eventually, Secretary of State Cordell Hull intervened and stated he only cared about qualifications, which Bunche clearly had.
Two concepts that Bunch rejected included the term “African-American” and his legacy as a descendant of slaves. He thought the former term was improper because he was an American, albeit one with a negro heritage. He minimized his slave legacy in part because of his views on victimhood. Bunche rejected any victim status, because it allowed the victimizer to hold onto a self-perceive sense of superiority. Bunche did not want others to define him or his humanity.
I felt a deep sense of sadness and anger when reading about Ralph Bunche, Jr.‘s attempt to join the West Side Tennis Club in NYC. In 1959, Bunche Jr. played there and took lessons there, but the president of the club didn’t know the Bunches were black. When Ralph Sr. called about membership, he was told neither Negros or Jews were likely to be accepted as members, and 200 members would resign if they did. There was terrible fallout for the club, and the Bunches never ended up joining. Segregation policies were awful enough on their own, but how much worse to be a welcome member, then have your heritage discovered and your admittance barred. The degree of arbitrary cruelty is infuriating.
In a major example of hypocritical irony, during a speech Bunche gave in Birmingham, the mayor gave him a key to the city. It apparently wasn’t a functional key, because the Birmingham Dinkler-Tutweiler Hotel refused Gina room based on his race.
Bunch spoke at Medgar Ever’s funeral, and he also gave a speech as part of the 1963 March on Washington. These are two prominent examples among many in addition to Bunche’s storied career, yet I would guess that Medgar Evers is far more well known. Admittedly, martyrdom can naturally beget fame, but it still seems surprising to me. According to Dr. Henry, “Unlike many of his contemporaries in the civil-liberties and human-rights movements in the United States, Bunche was convinced the economic rights were just as important as political and civil rights.” Perhaps this less popular opinion contributes to Bunche’s missing prominence in American history.
The concluding line of Dr. Henry’s book is sadly poignant as he analyzed why Ralph Bunche is forgotten today: “Bunche the human being and his legacy had been appropriated by the dominant ideology. He was redefined to make him an acceptable ‘other.’ When the larger society no longer needed his legacy for its purposes he was forgotten. For the Black community, Bunche became invisible—his identity lost. That is why Ralph Johnson Bunche is unknown today and that is why his story must be told.” I am grateful for this book and for knowing more about a man who certainly should not be forgotten.
