Dr. Ralph Bunche: A Life of Successful Diplomacy by Jim Patterson

Dr. Ralph Bunche

Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche contributed an essay, “Nana Lit the Beacon,” for Edward R. Murrow’s “This I Believe” (Simon and Schuster, 1954). The book is a collection of essays by prominent Americans on their fundamental beliefs about our nation and the world.  In Bunche’s nearly 600-word essay, he wrote of being raised by his grandmother and the importance of self-empowerment.

Murrow’s brief biography on Bunche, whom he called an “educator, humanitarian,” included Bunche's appointment as principal director, Department of Trusteeship and Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories of the United Nations. Born in Detroit, in 1904, Bunche was educated at the University of California and Harvard, where he majored in government and international relations.

Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for his mediation work in Israel. He was the first African American to receive the honor.

“In my youth, I had what many would consider a poor and hard life. But as I recall it, I was never unhappy; rather I enjoyed my youth immensely. For I had been taught how to appreciate and get the most out of very little, and that happiness in any circumstances is primarily a matter of control over one’s state of mind,” Bunche wrote.

Bunche wrote he never surrendered his “dignity and self-respect” as a youth in the mean streets of Detroit or in segregated Washington. “I have faith in people, in, collectively, their essential goodness and good sense; granted that there will be individual mavericks on every human range," he wrote.

Bunche believed in the work of the United Nations in an era when the world and Washington looked to it for approaches to “harmony and peace,” as he put it.

Nearly 65 years have not diminished the strength of the personal beliefs of Dr. Ralph Bunche expressed in Murrow’s book. He retired as Under Secretary General of the United Nations in October 1971 and died two months later at age 67.

President Richard Nixon, in a statement, called Dr. Bunche “one of the greatest architects of peace in our time” for his work in the Congo and the Middle East. “America is deeply proud of this distinguished son and profoundly saddened by his death. But we are also strengthened by the inexhaustible measure of dedication and creative action that spans his splendid career.”

The “creative action,” President Nixon mentioned may have been from lessons Bunche learned from his grandmother on how to “get the most out of very little” by control over his state of mind, as he wrote in seventeen years earlier for Murrow’s book in “Nana Lit the Beacon.”  

Jim Patterson note: Bunche's 1954 essay appears in full below. 

"Nana Lit the Beacons" by Dr. Ralph J. Bunche from This I Believe edited by Edward R, Murrow (Simon and Schuster, 1954) 

"I feel, more than a little self-conscious about trying to elucidate my personal, private creed. For, after all, when a person strips down all the way to his innermost beliefs-an in public-he stands awfully exposed. Nevertheless, it strikes me as a very useful experience to sit down with oneself and seriously think through one’s beliefs and convictions.

"The trail of my beliefs and their development leads back to my childhood. I was reared in a deeply religious family. It was a sort of matriarchal clan, ruled over by my maternal grandmother, “Nana”-a name, incidentally, which I had given her as a tot in trying clumsily to say “Grandma.” Nana, a strong and devout personality, beloved and respected by all who knew her, guided the family by simple but firm beliefs.

"Foremost, she believed in God. In worldly matters, she believed that every person, without regard to race or religion, has a virtually sacred right to dignity and respect; that all men are brothers and are entitled to be treated as equals and to enjoy equality of opportunity; that principle, integrity, and self-respect are never to be worn as loose garments. For each of us in that family there are belief, almost automatically, came to be part of our very being. For me, this was particularly so, since Nana became both mother and father to me when in my early youth I lost both parents.

"In my youth, I had what many would consider a poor and hard life. But as I recall it, I was never unhappy; rather I enjoyed my youth immensely. For I had been taught how to appreciate and get the most out of very little, and that happiness in any circumstances is primarily a matter of control over one’s state of mind.

"I find that most everything in which I now believe stems from the simple lessons I learned at the knee of Nana. The beliefs I acquired, quite unconsciously and unthinkingly, in those early years, the lessons on how to approach life and its many problems, have been my unfailing guideposts.

"Like Nana, I have an implicit belief in a Supreme Being and a Supreme Will beyond the ken of mortal men.

"I hold that it is right to believe in one’s self, but it is wrong ever to take one’s self too seriously. For a keen sense of personal values and that humility which accompanies a balanced perspective are indispensable to congenial adjustment to life in society. 

"I believe that no man can be happy within himself if he ever surrenders his dignity and self-respect. I have faith in people, in, collectively, their essential goodness and good sense; granted that there will be individual mavericks on every human range.

"I believe that men can learn to live together in harmony and peace, in the international community as in domestic communities, and I am unfalteringly devoted, therefore, to the historic effort of the United Nations toward this end.

"I believe, also, in looking always on the brighter side of things; in the ability of right somehow ultimately to prevail; in never pressing time or fate; in taking life philosophically and in stride—both the good and the bad—and I have had an ample measure of both. 

"These are some, at least, of my beliefs. They are, for me, imperatives beacons without which life would be utterly lacking in direction or meaning."

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Jim Patterson note: I share the beliefs Dr. Bunche had about his career and the institutions he served during and after WWII. I share, also, his experience as a poor youth solidly grounded in family and faith. We share a faith, through time, in our government and its institutions, especially regarding peace, dignity and respect between nations.

Jim Patterson JEPDiplomat@gmail.com

Jim Patterson is: 

Life Member American Foreign Service Association

Member Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations

Associate Member Korean War veterans Association

Life Member Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America

Member Sons of The American Legion

Member US Philippines Society

Friend of the Israeli Defense Forces

Member California State Society

Honorary Member Paralyzed Veterans of America