Ralph Johnson Bunche was a professor at Howard University and became a political scientist and diplomat. Some know Ralph Bunche for his civil rights work, or for being the first black person to win the Nobel Prize, others look deeper into what his Nobel Prize was awarded for and rightfully condemn Ralph Bunche’s legacy.
During World War II, Bunche worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) – the predecessor to the CIA, an organization responsible for death, destruction, and destabilization of nations in the periphery.
Following his time at OSS, towards the end of WWII, Bunche took on a job at the United Nations.
Bunche was part of the original commission that drew the lines of oppression on the map of Palestine. As Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians continues to this day, even under the so-called ceasefire, he and others apart of the UN at the time have the blood of Palestinians on their hands; their actions set the stage for the zionist entity to establish an apartheid system in Palestine, and paved the way for their current genocide.
Howard University, as a school that proclaims to be the Mecca for black students around the world, cannot selectively celebrate Ralph Bunche. Howard cannot choose to only focus on Bunche’s civil rights work while ignoring the suffering he has caused in the Middle East. Palestine has suffered over 100 years of occupation – first from the British and now zionist occupation – and the lines the UN drew in 1948 played a role in continuing the apartheid and subjugation Palestinians face to this day. It is Howard’s duty to ensure that the figures it seeks to prop up as examples for students match the values of Veritas et Utilitas (truth and service) it claims to stand by. It is neither truth nor service to hide the role Ralph Bunche played in the colonization of Palestine.
We, the body of Howard University Students for Justice in Palestine, call on Howard University to rename the “Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center” and to issue an apology for keeping a name all these years that serves as a bleak reminder of Palestinian colonization.
We specifically call on the school to rename the department to the “Kwame Ture International Affairs Center” to honor the life and legacy of Howard University alumni Kwame Ture and his work in championing freedom for African people throughout the diaspora, anti-imperialism, Pan-Africanism, the self-determination of oppressed peoples, and dignity of marginalized identities.
We also call on Howard students, DMV students, and allies in this region to sign onto the petition below, and show support for our demands asking Howard University to rename the Ralph Bunche Center. Show Howard University that this is not a semantics issue; it is an issue of this school glorifying figures responsible for the genocide of Palestinians.
As individuals of conscience, it is time to hold Howard University accountable.