Ralph J. Bunche Home 1221 East 40th Place – map While not the
home most associated with Dr Ralph J. Bunche – a nice one,
designed by Hilyard R. Robinson, still stands in D.C., and then
there’s the National Historic Landmark in Queens, N.Y. – it’s in
this simple California cottage off South Central where the
future Nobel Peace Prize winner lived for about a decade
beginning in 1917. Ralph Johnson Bunch was born in Detroit,
Michigan, on August 7, 1903. His family moved from there to
Cleveland to Knoxville to Toledo by the year 1909. When Ralph
was ten, the Bunch Bunch packed up and relocated to Albuquerque.
He lost his parents in 1917 – his mom to TB, his dad to
desertion. It was after this when his grandmother, aunt, and
uncle bundled up Ralph and his sister and headed to Los Angeles.
They first rented a bungalow at 1219 Griffith Avenue, but had to
leave when the owner realized the family was black (Ralph’s
uncle, like his grandmother, was light-skinned, and had
unintentionally fooled the racist). The family w