Ralph J. Bunche House

Ralph J. Bunche, the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize, lived in the house at 1221 E. 40th Place in South L.A. in his teens and early twenties. There is a sign by the sidewalk in front of the wood frame bungalow that was once owned by Bunche's grandmother, Lucy Johnson. The Ralph J. Bunche House became a National Register of Historic Places listing in 1978 for its historical association with Dr. Bunche, who brokered an Israeli/Arab peace deal in 1949. The restored home was later transformed into a museum on Bunche after being restored by a nonprofit. The home has become a private residence once again, since the 2010s.

Ralph J. Bunche was born in Detroit in 1904 and was the grandson of a former slave; his father was born in Ohio and his mother in Kansas. He moved to Los Angeles in 1917 with his sister after their mother died; the siblings lived with their grandmother and her children in the bungalow style house on E. 40th Place (then "37th St."). In 1920, the head of the household was Lucy Johnson, a 54-year-old widow and a native of Illinois. Mrs. Johnson owned her mortgaged home and was not employed. Her children living in the house were all single: Ethel (38, a hairdresser); Thomas L. (32, a cutter in a press factory); and Nell (29, a public school teacher). Ralph was 16 and worked in the office of a dye works. Ralph's sister. Grace (10) was not working. The Bunche children were attending school in 1920 and everyone in the household was able to read and write.

Bunche attended a local high school just a half block from his home and went on to study at U.C.L.A. He was still a resident of this house in 1924, according to a city directory. He was an athlete in college football and basketball and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1927. Bunche went on to Harvard University, where he earned a master's degree and a doctorate. By 1931, Bunche was teaching at Howard University, a historically Black school, and living in Washington, D.C. (on Q Street N.W.).

During World War II, Bunche served in the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Office of Strategic Services, and the State Department. He was instrumental in the formation of the United Nations in 1946 and served the organization for the rest of his life. One of his most famous achievements was in helping broker a peace deal in 1949 between the state of Israel and Arab nations. For this act, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Dr. Bunche was appointed as a professor of government at Harvard in 1950 but was granted a leave of absence due to his duties at the U.N. as its director of the trusteeship division.

From 1957 onward, Dr. Bunche was the U.N.'s Undersecretary for Special Political Affairs. He lived in Queens, New York City at the time of his death in 1971 at age 67. Just a few months before his death, Bunche retired from his U.N. post, the highest ever held at that time by an American. He was honored by having his likeness on a U.S. postage stamp in 1982; the 20-cent stamp is part of the Great Americans Series.

The boyhood house of Dr. Bunche was divided into a duplex in 1940 and later was vacant for years. The house was acquired by the 1970s by the Dunbar Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit, who restored the building to house the Ralph Bunche Peace and Heritage Center. For years, the building contained a museum dedicated to the life of Dr. Bunche and served as a community meeting place plus space for a youth academy. Later, the building was leased by the Coalition for Responsible Community Development; the museum collection went to U.C.L.A. The house was sold in 2015 by the Community Redevelopment Agency of L.A. and returned to being a private residence.

Anonymous. "Bunche is Harvard Professor Now." Madera Daily News-Tribune (Madera, CA) October 26th, 1950. 7-7.

Anonymous. "Retired Dr. Bunche dies at 67." Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA) December 9th, 1971. 1-1.

Dunbar Hotel Black Cultural & Historical Museum, Inc. NRHP nomination of Ralph J. Bunche House, 1221 E. 40th Place, Los Angeles, California. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1977.

Kronish, Syd. "Bunche on 20-cent regular stamp." Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA) January 16th, 1982. C4-C4.

Los Angeles Conservancy. Ralph J. Bunche House, Explore L.A.. January 1st, 2020. Accessed May 31st, 2023. https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/ralph-j-bunche-house.

Los Angeles Directory Company. Los Angeles City Directory 1924. Los Angeles, CA. Los Angeles Directory Company, 1924.

R.L. Polk & Co. Boyd's District of Columbia Directory 1931. Volume LXXIII. Washington, DC. R.L. Polk & Company, 1931.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of Lucy Johnson at 1221 Thirty-Seventh St., Los Angeles, California, dwelling 67, family 73. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1920.