The Higher Education of Ralph Bunche

Abstract

UCLA WAS WHERE it all began for me; where, in a sense, I began; college for me was the gen? esis and the catalyst. Thus, at the dedication, in 1969, of Ralph Bunche Hall on the UCLA cam? pus, Ralph Bunche eulogized his old school. With his pay as a carpet layer Bunche had, in the summer before going to college, acquired a jalopy and had spent a wild summer with his friends, careening up and down Central Avenue, fired by bathtub gin and apple brandy. Only his Nana's insistence had kept him to his enrollment at UCLA, but about halfway through his freshman year he realized that he could hold his own and began to see that she had been right. In Bunche's time UCLA (then called University of Cali? fornia, Southern Branch) was still on the old Vermont Avenue campus (now Los Angeles City College), and he earned much-needed cash trimming the ivy on the old buildings. The student body was relatively small ? some 3,600 in all ? and in the rather cramped quarters of the old campus it was possible to know a large number of its mem? bers. Bunche was extremely gregarious. He had many friends and plenty of girlfriends, and he loved parties and excursions. He remained in touch with many of his UCLA friends throughout his life and, on later visits to Los Ange? les, he would try to see as many of them as possible or gath? er them together for a party. His UCLA photograph album shows a popular and handsome young man having a won? derful time.