Two Nobel Blacks: Bunche and Morrison

The Nobel's are granted annually to persons or institutions for outstanding contributions made during the previous year in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, international peace and economic sciences.

Generally considered a most prestigious award, Nobel Prizes come from a trust fund established by Swedish chemist, inventor, and philanthropist Alfred Bernhard Nobel. As designated in Nobel's will, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards prizes for physics and chemistry; the Nobel Assembly awards prizes for physiological or medical works; the Swedish Academy awards prizes for literature; and the Norwegian Nobel Committee selects the winner of the peace prize. In 1968 a new prize for economics was established and endowed by the national bank of Sweden.

Dr. Ralph J. Bunche
The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901; it was not until 1950 that a Black person was a recipient. An African American from Detroit, Dr. Ralph J. Bunche was the first black man to receive the distinguished prize for his work as a United Nations mediator; his efforts led to the 1949 Arab-Israeli armistice agreement.
At the close of the Second World War, Bunche was active in preliminary planning for the United Nations (Dumbarton Oaks Conversations held in Washington D.C. in 1944). He was also an advisor to the U.S. delegation for the "Charter Conference" of the United Nations held in 1945. Additionally, he was closely involved in drafting the charter of the United Nations. Ralph Bunche along with Eleanor Roosevelt was considered instrumental in the creation and adoption of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.

Beginning in 1947, he was involved with the Arab-Israeli conflict. He served as assistant to the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine, and thereafter as the principal secretary of the U.N. Palestine Commission. In 1948 he traveled to the Middle East as the chief aide to Count Folke Bernadotte, who had been appointed by the U.N. to attempt to mediate the conflict. In September, Bernadotte was assassinated by members of the underground Jewish group Lehi. Bunche became the U.N.'s chief mediator and concluded the task with the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements; the work for which he received the Peace Prize and many other honors.

He continued to work for the United Nations, mediating in other strife-torn regions including The Congo, Yemen, Kashmir, and Cyprus, eventually rising to the position of undersecretary-general in 1968. As a prominent African-American, Bunche was an active and vocal supporter of the civil rights movement, though he never actually held a titled position in the major organizations of the movement.

Bunche died in 1971 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for her collected works. She was born on February 18, 1931, Lorain, Ohio is one of the most prominent authors in world literature. Several of her novels have taken their place in the canon of American literature, including The Bluest Eye, Beloved (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), and Song of Solomon. Morrison's writings are notable for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed African American characters.

In 1949 Morrison entered Howard University to study humanities. While there she changed her name from "Chloe" to "Toni", explaining that people found "Chloe" too difficult to pronounce. Her name "Toni" comes from her middle name, Anthony. Morrison received a B.A. in English from Howard in 1953, and then earned a Master of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1955. Oxford University awarded her an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in June 2005.

After graduation, Morrison became an English instructor at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas (from 1955-57) then returned to Howard to teach English. In 1958 she married Harold Morrison. They had two children and divorced in 1964. After the divorce she moved to Syracuse, New York, where she worked as a textbook editor. Eighteen months later she went to work as an editor at the New York City headquarters of Random House.

As an editor, Morrison played an important role in bringing African American literature into the mainstream. She edited books by such black authors as Toni Cade Bambara and Gayl Jones. She also taught English at two branches of the State University of New York. In 1984 she was appointed to an Albert Schweitzer chair at the University at Albany, The State University of New York. Currently, Morrison is the Robert F. Goheen Professor of Humanities at Princeton University, a position she has held since 1989.

Other remarkable African-Americans and Africans have received a Nobel. They are: Albert John Luthuli, 1960 Peace Prize; Martin Luther King Jr., 1964 Peace Prize; Sir William Arthur Lewis, 1979 Economics Prize; Bishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Peace Prize; Wole Soyinka, 1986 Literature Prize; Derek Walcott, 1992 Literature Prize; Nelson Mandela, 1993 Peace Prize, Kofi Annan 2001 Peace Prize and Wangari Maathai, 2004. Nobel Prize winners receive a cash award, a gold medal, and a diploma.