Near the close of World War II in 1944, Bunche took part in planning for the United Nations at the
Dumbarton Oaks Conference, held in Washington, D.C. He was an adviser to the U.S. delegation for the
Charter Conference of the United Nations held in 1945, when the governing document was drafted. Together with First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt, Bunche was instrumental in the creation and adoption of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Bunche urged African Americans to take UN positions. "Negroes ought to get busy and prepare to obtain some of the jobs in the United Nations' set-up," he counseled. "There are going to be all kinds of jobs and Negroes should attempt to get jobs on all levels. Some organization should be working on this now." According to the United Nations document "Ralph Bunche: Visionary for Peace", during his 25 years of service to the United Nations, he
Decolonization Bunche's work to end colonialism began early in his academic career. Over time, he became a leading scholar and expert of the impact of colonialism on subjugated people. He developed close relationships with many anti-colonial leaders and intellectuals from the Caribbean and Africa, in particular during his field research and his time at the London School of Economics. Bunche characterized economic policies in colonies and mandates as exploitative, and argued that the colonial powers misrepresented the nature of their rule. Historian
Susan Pedersen describes Bunche as the "architect" of the United Nations' trusteeship regime.
Arab–Israeli conflict and Nobel Peace Prize Beginning in 1947, Bunche was involved in efforts to resolve the
Arab–Israeli conflict. He served as assistant to the
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and thereafter as the principal secretary of the
UN Palestine Commission. The committee traveled around the country in June–July 1947, where it was warmly welcomed by the Jewish community. During this time the committee also met secretly with
Menachem Begin, later prime minister of Israel, then wanted by the British. Bunche described this trip as his "most exciting adventure in the Land of Israel." In 1948, he traveled to the Middle East as the chief aide to
Sweden's Count
Folke Bernadotte, who had been appointed by the UN to mediate the conflict. These men chose the island of
Rhodes for their base and working headquarters. In September 1948, Bernadotte was assassinated in
Jerusalem by members of the underground Jewish
Lehi group, which was led by
Yitzhak Shamir and referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out terrorist attacks. , 12 December 1948 Following the assassination, Bunche became the UN's chief mediator; he conducted all future negotiations on Rhodes. The representative for Israel was
Moshe Dayan; he reported in memoirs that much of his delicate negotiation with Bunche was conducted over a billiard table while the two were shooting pool. Optimistically, Bunche commissioned a local potter to create unique memorial plates bearing the name of each negotiator. When the agreement was signed, Bunche awarded these gifts. After unwrapping his, Dayan asked Bunche what might have happened if no agreement had been reached. "I'd have broken the plates over your damn heads," Bunche answered. For achieving the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Bunche continued to work for the United Nations, mediating in other strife-torn regions, including
the Congo,
Yemen,
Kashmir, and
Cyprus. Bunche was appointed
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1968. While at the UN, Bunche forged a close bond with his friend and colleague, Ambassador
Charles W. Yost, with whom he had worked at the UN founding conference. Bunche was actively involved in movements for black liberation in his pre-United Nations days, including through leadership positions with various civil rights organizations and as one of the leading scholars on the issue of race in the US and colonialism abroad. During his time at the United Nations, Bunche remained a vocal supporter of the US
Civil Rights Movement despite his activities being somewhat constrained by the codes governing international civil servants. He participated in the 1963
March on Washington, where
Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "
I Have a Dream" speech, and also, marching side by side with King, in the
Selma to Montgomery march in 1965, which contributed to passage of the landmark
Voting Rights Act of 1965 and federal enforcement of voting rights. As a result of his activism in the pre-war period, Bunche was a topic of discussion in the
House Un-American Activities Committee. However, he was never a communist or Marxist, and indeed came under very heavy attack from the pro-Soviet press during his career. Bunche lived in the
Kew Gardens neighborhood of
Queens, New York, in a home purchased with his Nobel Prize money, from 1953 until his death. Like many other
people of color, Bunche continued to struggle against racism across the United States and sometimes in his own neighborhood. In 1959, he and his son, Ralph, Jr., were denied membership in the
West Side Tennis Club in the
Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens. After the issue was given national coverage by the press, the club offered the Bunches an apology and invitation of membership. The official who had rebuffed them resigned. Bunche refused the offer, saying it was not based on racial equality and was an exception based only on his personal prestige. ==Marriage and family==