Ralph Bunche Park
.231 acres
This oasis opposite the United Nations honors a titan
of 20th century diplomacy. It was named in 1979 for Ralph Johnson
Bunche (1904-1971), an American educator, political scientist, and
United Nations mediator. The son of a barber and grandson of a former
slave, Bunche was born in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Jefferson
High School in Los Angeles and in 1927 from the University of California
at Los Angeles, where he was valedictorian and a star athlete. Bunche
received an M.A. in political science (1928) and a Ph.D. (1934)
at Harvard University. He did postdoctoral research in anthropology
at Northwestern University, the London School of Economics, and
Capetown University in South Africa. From 1928 to 1950 Bunche served
on the faculty of Howard University, where he established and chaired
its political science department. He wrote A World View of Race
(1936), and also collaborated with Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal
on a study of blacks in America titled An American Dilemma (1944).
During World War II Bunche served as chief research
analyst of the Africa section of the Office of Strategic Services
(1941-44). He then worked for the State Department from 1944 to
1947. In 1947 Bunche joined the United Nations Secretariat. After
the assassination in September 1948 of Count Folke Bernadotte, the
UN mediator in Palestine, the Security Council appointed Bunche
to succeed him. From January through July 1949 Bunche successfully
brokered the armistice agreements between Israel and the Arab states;
for his efforts he was accorded a ticker-tape parade up Broadway
in New York City. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950,
the first African-American to receive this celebrated award. From 1950 to 1952 Bunche taught at Harvard University.
Other appointments in the field of education included his service
as a member of the New York City Board of Education, Board of Overseers
of Harvard University, and Board of the Institute of International
Education, as well as a trustee of Oberlin College, Lincoln University,
and the New Lincoln School. In 1955 Bunche was appointed undersecretary of the
United Nations, and in 1957 secretary for special political affairs.
In 1956 he was civilian supervisor of the UN peacekeeping forces
in the Suez area. In 1960 he was part of a UN peacekeeping effort
in the Congo, and in 1964 he helped to mediate differences between
the Greeks, Cypriots, and Turks. For a lifetime of extraordinary
achievement in the international arena, he was awarded the United
States Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. One
year after he retired from the UN in 1970, he died in New York City.
This property is one of several in the Turtle Bay
neighborhood acquired by the City of New York in 1948 in connection
with the widening of First Avenue. In addition to the London Plane
and locust trees, the park is distinguished by four monuments. Peace
Form One at the north end is a 50-foot high stainless steel shaft
by Daniel Larue Johnson dedicated in 1980. This latter-day obelisk
is an homage to Bunche, who was a personal friend of the sculptor.
The northwest granite staircase was designed around 1948 by the
architectural firm of Andrews & Clark and inscribed in 1975 with
a passage from the Book of Isaiah: "they shall beat their swords
into plowshares." In 1981 the City Council named the western steps
after Russian dissident Anatoly Sharansky. At the southern end of
the park a commemorative plaque to civil rights crusader Bayard
Rustin (1912-1987) was dedicated by former Mayor Edward I. Koch
on January 23, 1990. On August 14, 1985 Mayor Koch joined community leaders,
dignitaries from the United Nations, and the widow of Ralph Bunche,
to designate this area as New York City's first peace park. The
designation was part of a worldwide effort by Ploughshares, a peace
organization and by Architects, Planners and Designers for Social
responsibility. The park, a place of public assembly and dissent,
across from the United Nations, is the historical site of many demonstrations
and protests against political oppression. It embodies in many ways
the principles of human understanding and freedom of expression.
Wednesday, Jul 07, 1999