Ralph Bunche, born August 7, 1904, is the first African-American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He was awarded the honor for his mediation in Israel during the late 1940s. John F. Kennedy awarded him the Presidential Medal of Honor in 1963.
Bunche served as assistant to the UN Special Committee on Palestine, and then as the principal secretary of the committee. He was the chief aide to Count Folke Bernadotte (of Sweden) who had been appointed by the UN to mediate the conflict.
Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem in September 1948. Following the assassination, Bunche became the UN's chief mediator. He achieved the Armistice Agreement in 1949 and received the Nobel Prize the following year.
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