Talk:Ralph Bunche

/Archive 1

Is he the first ethnically African or Black individual to receive the Nobel Peace Prize? If so, this may want to be mentioned in the article. --Dpr 03:01, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

This shows "Bunche was the first person of color to receive the Nobel Peace Prize" --Ancheta Wis 21:29, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Awesome! Thanks for your help. This man was a amazing American and a prominent world citizen. He deserves to be recognized...other than solely a conference/student center named after him at Howard University (yes I know there are some things in NYC and at UCLA also) --Dpr 21:43, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Walk thru the eucalyptus trees, under Bunche Hall, and you will be in the Sculpture Garden at UCLA

Bunche Hall,UCLA

File:BustOfRalphBunche,UCLA,BuncheHall.jpg

bust of Ralph Bunche,Bunche Hall UCLA

Stable version now

Let's begin the discussion per the protocol. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ancheta Wis (talk • contribs)

• Oppose -- the references section is hardly robust. There are few direct links to sources throughout the article. The press paints a bull's eye on Wikipedia by pointing out factual inaccuracies. It seems like media suicide to even discuss "stabilizing" an article that has so few reliable references. Which is worse, "Wikipedia inaccurate for six minutes" (as per the recent Ken Lay flap), or "Wikipedia makes permanent version riddled with unsourced inaccuracies"? "Stabilizing" this article in its current form would be the tip of the spear for hearing a lot of the latter. JDoorjam Talk 21:42, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

• To contain the forest fire that has this discussion spread across nine pages, I'd suggest discussion continue at the proposal talk page. JDoorjam Talk 20:44, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

• Strong Oppose due to the protocol you refer to not existing yet. Cynical 20:35, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

• One factual inaccuracy seems to be that "Ralph Bunche along with Eleanor Roosevelt were considered instrumental in the creation and adoption of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights". He is not mentioned in this capacity in any of the recent scholarly works on the Universal Declaration (ex. Natalie Kaufmann; Mary Ann Glendon; Paul Gordon Lauren; Carole Anderson; Rowland Brucken; and others).

Source and Zip for article

It is itself a secondary source, but the nomination of the Ralph Johnson Bunche House for National Historic Landmark status, linked at that page, contains an extensive discussion of Ralph Bunche's life and contributions. It seems to have zip that might be reflected in a good way in this article. I don't want to directly edit this article myself, right now, as i am working on historic places.... Hope this helps. doncram 18:20, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Year of Birth

Virtually all major sources give Ralph Bunche's year of birth as "1904," including the UN website. Using the SSDI is ORIGINAL RESEARCH and is thus not allowed. Remember, the Wikipedia rules stress "verifiability," not "truth."

However, getting to the "truth" of the matter: Social Security records are often incorrect, because the person applied for a pension early. Claiming to be a year older=retiring a year earlier. Documents issued when someone is in their 50s cannot serve as proof of birth. I'd like to see what the 1910 census says.Ryoung122 03:22, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

The 1910 census record () lists Ralph "Bunch" (as the family spelled the name at the time), the son of Fred Bunch and Olive Bunch (Bunche's parents' given names), as being age 6. If he was age 6 in April 1910, then this supports the evidence that he was born in August 1903 and not August 1904. This is the date used by the Ralph Bunche Centenary . Based on the "verifiability" standard, "reliable" sources support both years.Mrivlin (talk) 16:54, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

I've added the CUNY source as yet another citation for his birthday. I have included both dates in the article. The stuff about the census is interesting and probably true, but wikipedia is not a place for original research or "synthesis". Wlmg (talk) 19:52, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

There is a discussion of the Bunche birth year confusion in a footnote on pages 25-26 of Sir Brian Urquhart's Bunche biogoraphy Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey. Urquhart states that the correct year is 1903 and that the error stemmed from the family bible, which Bunche's aunt to a notary in 1940 to get a substitute birth verification when his birth certificate could not be located. Bunche had used 1903 until that time. I wish Wikipedia's programmers had routine way to list these kind of birth year and date confusions.Mrivlin (talk) 17:41, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

I've added a fifth citation for his birth date. The family bible anecdote makes it all the more problematic because it strongly implies that Bunche himself used both the 1903 & 1904 dates during his lifetime. I'm considering making a section in the article specifically addressing the birth date controversy incorporating all the citations, and let the chips fall where there'll be. I can also contact members of the Bunche family I know personally to see what input they have, but predict their answer will be "huh"? Wlmg (talk) 18:17, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Misleading Statement

"It was typical then for doctoral candidates to start teaching before completion of their dissertations." Graduate students have pretty much always taught, at various levels and in varying ways, for the entire 20th century and in all fields of study. This is news to no one. including it is like saying the sky is blue and the grass is green. you either know it as a fact (because you went to graduate school), or it is completely unimportant. The IMPORTANT part is this: he was a black graduate student teaching a Harvard (think: entitled white male, children of power brokers) undergraduate class in the 1930s. that is important for its sociopolitical implications.68.6.76.31 (talk) 22:53, 8 April 2011 (UTC)