UNITED NATIONS POST on 7 August 2003 issued three stamps to commemorate the centenary birth date of Dr. Ralph Bunche. The first day cover envelope carried postmark cancellations originating from UN headquarters in Geneva, New York and Vienna. He was also honoured in a USPS stamp.
Dr. Ralph Bunche received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s work as a United Nations mediator in the Palestine conflict. He called himself 'an incurable optimist'. Bunche was the first African American and person of colour to be so honoured in the history of the prize.
Dr. Bunche was present at the creation of the United Nations, as one of the co-authors of the Charter and a leading advocate of decolonisation. He laid the foundation for UN peacekeeping. He was intimately involved in every one of the key questions which the UN grappled with in its first decades.
Dr. Bunche was present at the creation of the United Nations, as one of the co-authors of the Charter and a leading advocate of decolonisation. He laid the foundation for UN peacekeeping. He was intimately involved in every one of the key questions which the UN grappled with in its first decades.
As if that was not enough, Bunche was also a leading figure in the civil rights movement in the United States, and an acclaimed and pioneering scholar of political science, especially race relations.
On receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for 1950, Bunche gave voice to that keenly felt anxiety about the inability of human beings to live together peacefully. In a few memorable words, he encapsulated the mission of the United Nations. The United Nations exists, he said, “not merely to preserve the peace but also to make change –even radical change –possible without violent upheaval. The United Nations has no vested interest in the status quo”.
Source: United Nations
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