Talk:Ralph Bunche

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

message: Let's begin the discussion per the protocol. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ancheta Wis (talk • contribs)  — Preceding undated comment added 04:57, 11 July 2006  (UTC)
* 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)
thread_title: Stable version now

message: 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)
thread_title: Source and Zip for article

message: 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)
thread_title: Year of Birth

message: "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)
thread_title: Misleading Statement

message: I see two articles listing Bunches father as having died.  I cannot find one the cite abandonment.
http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=89
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Br-Ca/Bunche-Ralph.html#b  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.206.168.217 (talk) 00:00, 30 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  His father abandons him?  I can not find a reference. 

message: Dr. Bunche's political views should be addressed, and there is evidence, both in what he wrote, and in which venues he wrote, which suggests he subscribed or sympathized with Marxist/Communist theory.  This evidence includes his contributions to Science & Society, an avowedly Marxist quarterly founded in 1936 and still published today (link) , as well as his words in his book on race, alluding to the Marxist concept of the Class Struggle, and his association with Alger Hiss.
To avoid misunderstandings, I myself agree with certain aspects of the Marxist view--therefore, identifying Dr. Bunche as a Marxist or Communist sympathizer is not a slander.  Indeed, during the 1930s (before the evils of Stalinism were widely known, during the dark days of the Great Depression and of Appeasement, when many idealistic people--including HG Wells--were seduced by the Kremlin's blandishments) , it would probably have been surprising for an African-American academic NOT TO BE a communist sympathizer, since the American Communist Party was one of the few groups in the United States courageously taking a stand against racism (as in the case of defending the 'Scottsboro Boys.'
Finally, it would be interesting to probe whether the FBI did any surveillance of Dr. Bunche, given his prominence, his association with Hiss, his blackness, and his outspokenness.  J Edgar Hoover's virulent racism being rivaled by his virulent anti-communism, Dr. Bunche would have presented the FBI Director's worst nightmare.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Guerre1859 (talk • contribs) 04:56, 17 May 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: He was never a member or sympathizer. See   Rjensen (talk) 23:16, 20 June 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Communist or Marxist? 

message: I just added a link to publicly available digitized materials (lots of photographs, but other documents as well) held in UCLA Library's Special Collections.  It's a rich resource that I think others will find meaningful and useful, but I'm mentioning it here because I'm a librarian at UCLA. I had nothing to do with the creation of the project, but I still want to make sure that it's generally agreed by page editors that this doesn't represent a conflict of interest. Nafpaktitism (talk) 00:18, 6 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: UCLA Digital Library link

message: I added a citation needed tag to the article about a statement made trying to associate the Bunch family name to the Bunche family name. The source given goes into detail about John Punch and the possibility of him giving birth to a John Bunch, but I don't see where the connection is made to the Bunche family name. The way this article reads implies that Bunche is related to John Punch and President Obama but the sources given don't make this connection. I'm hoping someone can provide a source that directly speaks to that connection and that it isn't just the result of original research made by a few editors, not substantiated by reliable sources. Anyone who knows anything or can contribute, please feel free to clarify this for me. Scoobydunk (talk) 00:09, 31 May 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi, I have qualified the statement - the leap was made by Paul Heinegg, who was given an award for his major work of genealogy, Free African Americans in VA, NC and SC (1995-2005), so I have taken his work as an RS. He noted in the quoted material (which I have inserted in the article) that the connection of Ralph's father Fred Bunche to the Bunches of SC was "not proven," but "likely," as there were several other Bunches from SC in Detroit in the 1900 census at the same time that Fred Bunche was there. (My note: this was the period of the Great Migration from the South to northern and midwestern cities.) (So, yes, my memory was more emphatic than Heinegg's statement - I'll correct it.) He does trace several generations of Bunch males and other descendants from the 17th c. John Bunch in VA, who Ancestry.com connected to John Punch. Bunch descendants eventually moved west to the VA frontier, frontiers of NC and SC, and often west of that. Obama's mother's line of descendants ended up in KS, to Obama. The Ancestry.com material said many of the Bunch descendants were accepted as white as early as mid-18th c. or earlier. Heinegg has updated his material online about the first John Bunch to add the new material from the Ancestry.com articles re: DNA connection to Africa. You can see it if you look at his book online: http://www.freeafricanamericans.com. There is a section on the Bunch Family (The material is organized by family surname). Elsewhere or here in another section I've seen more about the Bunch/Bunche connection; basically, spelling variations arose but the basic name and ancestry is considered to be the same. There was much more spelling variation among surnames until quite late, but the basic name was rare.Parkwells (talk) 23:30, 1 June 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Excellent work! Thank you for taking the time to clarify this and I'll include the relevant information on the John Punch page once I find some time.Scoobydunk (talk) 03:01, 2 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bunch not Bunche 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified  on Ralph Bunche. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20121122110355/http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us:80/hso/sites/15255.htm to http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/hso/sites/15255.htm
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 10:51, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 2 external links on Ralph Bunche. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Corrected formatting/usage for http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/bunche/index.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100707184346/http://www.naacp.org/pages/spingarn-medal-winners to http://www.naacp.org/pages/spingarn-medal-winners
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 03:25, 20 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I recently was reading a biography of Mr. Bunche and was surprised to learn that as a youngster, he could not enter his own father's barber shop because it was a 'White' barber shop - My edit was reverted. It is as follows:
I did make an error on the page number, it's actually from page 51. Was this a possible reason for this being reverted? The system doesn't seem to allow comments or remarks for users to explain why a reversion is executed. I've left a message on the editor's talk page. Any remarks are welcome below. Keep up the good work. I'm very busy and may not have time to respond promptly.  בס״ד  172.250.237.36 (talk) 02:13, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: It is interesting, but I think it doesn't belong. It says nothing about Ralph, and little about his father except that he lived in times when barbers' shops were segregated. Zerotalk 03:01, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

text: *I took out the fact because it was a random fact dropped in with little context. Perhaps a longer paragraph discussing race and his upbringing, or the effects of racism. However, it seems out of context where it was placed. --evrik (talk) 03:53, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: *The fact that he was the first African American recipient of the Nobel prize is also mentioned; there seems to be an issue there. Thanks for the feedback. Keep up the good work.  בס״ד  172.250.237.36 (talk) 16:56, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: *That's a different issue. As it is right now, your factoid has no place in the article. --evrik (talk) 19:29, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

text: *The Nobel Prize is a significant issue about Ralph Bunche. The barber's shop is not. Zerotalk 02:53, 10 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: *You suggest the mention of his father's profession is also not significant? Thanks for the comment. Keep up the good work. בס״ד   172.250.237.36 (talk) 15:53, 10 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text:  His father's profession is admissible (a few words). Zerotalk 02:33, 11 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks, Zero. The point isn't what his father did for a living, but that because of his skin color, he was not allowed to enter his father's place of business; contextually, for something like that to happen today, would be a clear civil rights issue, as a MINIMUM. So, in that context, it would be a pertinent addition, would it not? Today skin color would not be an issue, but during Dr. Bunche's childhood, and even during most of his adulthood, skin color was of definite importance regarding where a person was allowed to enter. Even as an adult, he may have been barred from that barber shop.  Age was not the issue, skin color was.  Thanks for the feedback. Keep up the good work. בס״ד   172.250.237.36 (talk) 17:43, 21 July 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Father's Barber Shop - For Whites Only