Ralph Bunche

"And so class will some day supplant race in world affairs. Race war will then be merely a side-show to the gigantic class war which will be waged in the big tent we call the world." ~ Ralph Bunche, A World View of Race

Ralph Johnson Bunche was born in Detroit on August 7, 1903 [some sources put the date as August 8 and the year as 1904]. He later lived in Toledo, Ohio, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, before attending Jefferson High School in Los Angeles while living with his maternal grandmother. He was valedictorian of his class at Jefferson High School and was awarded an athletic scholarship to UCLA. While working as a janitor to cover living expenses, he again graduated at the top of his class with with a degree in international relations and was awarded a scholarship to Harvard where he earned a master's degree in political science, followed by a doctorate while teaching at Howard University.

From 1928 through 1950 Bunche chaired the department of Political Science at Howard. During World War II he worked in the Office of Strategic Services (forerunner of CIA) as a senior analyst on colonial affairs, and in the State Department under Alger Hiss.  He was part of the Dunbarton Oaks Conference in 1944 which led to the creation of the United Nations and was instrumental in drafting both the UN Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights.


Bunche was then assigned to the UN Special Committee on Palestine and became the chief mediatiator upon the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden. He negotiated an armistice between Israel and the Arab States in August 1949 which led to his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.

Bunche continued his diplomatic career in crisis spots such as the Suez Canal (1956), the Congo (1960) and Cyprus (1964), rising to the position of Undersecretary General of the UN. Domestically he served on the New York City Board of Education, the Harvard Board of Overseers and the NAACP Board of Directors. 


He passed away on December 9, 1971 in New York City at the age of 68.

Betye Saar

“I am intrigued with combining the remnant of memories, fragments of relics and ordinary objects, with the components of technology. It’s a way of delving into the past and reaching into the future simultaneously.” ~ Betye Saar

Born July 30, 1926 in Los Angeles, Betye Saar was inspired by watching the building of Simon Rodia's Watts Towers while visiting her grandmother as a child. Of African, Native American and Irish heritage, she has said that the purpose of her art is to "reach across the barriers of art and life, to bridge cultural diversities and forge new understandings." She graduated from UCLA in 1949 with a BA in design, and later studied printmaking at Pasadena City College and Long Beach State University. Working in a collage or assemblist style, she incorporates a variety of objects into her pieces, using themes of mysticism and nostalgia as well as challenging racist stereotypes.


Saar's best known work is The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972) showing a sterotypical mammy holding a broom in one hand and a rifle in the other. Her art has been on exhibit throughout the country, sometimes with the work of her daughters Lezley and Alison, both artists. A traveling retrospective was presented by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 2006 in honor of her eightieth birthday.

The Liberation of Aunt Jemima

Midnight Madonnas

Ragtime

Long Memories

Blackbird

Crossings