cover image Ralph Bunche: Model Negro or American Other?

Ralph Bunche: Model Negro or American Other?

. New York University Press, $65 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-8147-3582-4

Henry's book is much broader--and better--than its precious subtitle suggests. It's a sweeping history of mid-century America mixed with a close analysis of the life and work of Ralph Bunche (1903-1971), the African-American scholar and statesman who, according to Henry, was much more of a ""race man"" than his establishment career would lead people to suspect. In 1934, Bunche became the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard, and he later established the political science department at Howard University. Bunche is best known for his work in various positions at the UN, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 as director of that institution's Trusteeship Division, which was responsible for putting together and administering the first UN peacekeeping forces. In the ensuing years, he was vocal in his criticism of American racism, declaring the Civil Rights Act of 1957 ""disappointingly weak,"" and surprised those who had pegged him as an ""accommodationist"" when he declared that he ""did not rule out violence as a means of revolutionary change"" in the U.S. Henry, a professor of African-American studies at UC-Berkeley, doesn't give readers a personal portrait of Bunche. Instead, he concentrates on how race affected the way this highly accomplished man was viewed, by himself and by other Americans. Some felt Bunche wasn't ""Negro"" enough; others thought him too black by half. ""I've been the token Negro at too many parties for too many years,"" Bunche once said. Henry does a fine job of illuminating how Bunche flourished, despite the unfair demands made on him--by both black and white Americans--because of his race. (Jan.)