1.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
2.
Birmingham, Alabama
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Birmingham is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Jefferson County. The citys population was 212,237 in the 2010 United States Census, the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of about 1,128,047 according to the 2010 Census, which is approximately one quarter of Alabamas population. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period and it was named for Birmingham, England, one of the UKs major industrial cities. The Alabama city annexed smaller neighbors and developed as an industrial and railroad center, based on mining, the new iron and steel industry. Most of the settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry. From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was an industrial center of the southern United States. Its growth from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames as The Magic City and its major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry. Rails and railroad cars were manufactured in Birmingham. The two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South have been nearby Atlanta and Birmingham, since the 1860s, the economy has diversified since industrial restructuring in the latter half of the 20th century. Banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical transmission, medical care, college education. Except for coal mining, the industry has declined in the Birmingham area, Birmingham ranks as one of the most important business centers in the Southeastern United States and as one of the largest banking centers in the nation. In higher education, Birmingham has been the location of the University of Alabama School of Medicine, since that time it has also gained the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of three main campuses of the University of Alabama System. It is also home to three institutions, Samford University, Birmingham-Southern College, and Miles College. In total, the Birmingham area has major colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, physical therapy, pharmacy, law, engineering, the city has three of the states five law schools, Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham School of Law, and Miles Law School. Birmingham is also the headquarters of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and Southeastern Conference, Birmingham was founded on June 1,1871, by the Elyton Land Company, whose investors included cotton planters, bankers and railroad entrepreneurs. It sold lots near the crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North Alabama railroads. The first business at that crossroads was the trading post and country store operated by Marre, the site of the railroad crossing was notable for its proximity to nearby deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone – the three main raw materials used in making steel. Birmingham is the only place worldwide where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in close proximity, from the start the new city was planned as a center of industry
3.
Alabama
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Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 24th-most populous of the U. S. states. At nearly 1,500 miles, Alabama has one of the nations longest navigable inland waterways, Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. Alabama is also known as the Heart of Dixie and the Cotton State, the state tree is the longleaf pine, and the state flower is the camellia. The largest city by population is Birmingham, which has long been the most industrialized city, the oldest city is Mobile, founded by French colonists in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana. From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many states in the southern U. S. suffered economic hardship, like other southern states, Alabama legislators disenfranchised African Americans and many poor whites at the turn of the century. Following World War II, Alabama grew as the economy changed from one primarily based on agriculture to one with diversified interests. The state economy in the 21st century is based on management, automotive, finance, manufacturing, aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail, in the Alabama language, the word for a person of Alabama lineage is Albaamo. The word Alabama is believed to have come from the Alabama language, the words spelling varies significantly among historical sources. As early as 1702, the French called the tribe the Alibamon, other spellings of the name have included Alibamu, Alabamo, Albama, Alebamon, Alibama, Alibamou, Alabamu, Allibamou. Sources disagree on the words meaning, some scholars suggest the word comes from the Choctaw alba and amo. The meaning may have been clearers of the thicket or herb gatherers, the state has numerous place names of Native American origin. However, there are no correspondingly similar words in the Alabama language, an 1842 article in the Jacksonville Republican proposed it meant Here We Rest. This notion was popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek, experts in the Muskogean languages have not found any evidence to support such a translation. Indigenous peoples of varying cultures lived in the area for thousands of years before the advent of European colonization, trade with the northeastern tribes by the Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period and continued until European contact. The agrarian Mississippian culture covered most of the state from 1000 to 1600 AD, with one of its major centers built at what is now the Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Alabama. This is the second-largest complex of the classic Middle Mississippian era, after Cahokia in present-day Illinois, Analysis of artifacts from archaeological excavations at Moundville were the basis of scholars formulating the characteristics of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Contrary to popular belief, the SECC appears to have no links to Mesoamerican culture
4.
African Americans
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African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of 73. 2–80. 9% West African, 18–24% European, according to US Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities, immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term. After the founding of the United States, black people continued to be enslaved, believed to be inferior to white people, they were treated as second-class citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U. S. citizenship to whites only, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic, the settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to Haiti, whence they had come. The first recorded Africans in British North America were 20 and odd negroes who came to Jamestown, as English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World, the landowner received 50 acres of land from the state for each servant purchased from a ships captain. An indentured servant would work for years without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery, servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom and they raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or English settlers. By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of slavery when they sentenced John Punch. One of Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would own one of the first black slaves, John Casor
5.
Demolition
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Demolition is the tearing down of buildings and other man-made structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use purposes. For small buildings, such as houses, that are two or three stories high, demolition is a rather simple process. The building is pulled down either manually or mechanically using large hydraulic equipment, elevated platforms, cranes. Larger buildings may require the use of a ball, a heavy weight on a cable that is swung by a crane into the side of the buildings. Wrecking balls are especially effective against masonry, but are easily controlled. Newer methods may use rotational hydraulic shears and silenced rock-breakers attached to excavators to cut or break through wood, steel, the use of shears is especially common when flame cutting would be dangerous. The tallest planned demolition of a building was the 47-story Singer Building in New York City, the typical razing of a building is accomplished as follows, Hydraulic excavators may be used to topple one- or two-story buildings by an undermining process. The strategy is to undermine the building while controlling the manner, the demolition project manager/supervisor will determine where undermining is necessary so that a building is pulled in the desired manner and direction. The walls are typically undermined at a base, but this is not always the case if the building design dictates otherwise. Safety and cleanup considerations are taken into account in determining how the building is undermined. In some cases a crane with a ball is used to demolish the structure down to a certain manageable height. At that point undermining takes place as described above, however crane mounted demolition balls are rarely used within demolition due to the uncontrollable nature of the swinging ball and the safety implications associated. High reach demolition excavators are often used for tall buildings where explosive demolition is not appropriate or possible. Excavators with shear attachments are used to dismantle steel structural elements. Hydraulic hammers are used for concrete structures and concrete processing attachments are used to crush concrete to a manageable size. To control dust, fire hoses are used to maintain a wet demolition, hoses may be held by workers, secured in fixed location, or attached to lifts to gain elevation. Loaders or bulldozers may also be used to demolish a building and they are typically equipped with rakes that are used to ram building walls
6.
Romanesque architecture
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Romanesque Architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the late 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style, marked by pointed arches, examples of Romanesque architecture can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman Architecture. The Romanesque style in England is traditionally referred to as Norman architecture, each building has clearly defined forms, frequently of very regular, symmetrical plan, the overall appearance is one of simplicity when compared with the Gothic buildings that were to follow. The style can be identified right across Europe, despite regional characteristics, Many castles were built during this period, but they are greatly outnumbered by churches. The most significant are the great churches, many of which are still standing, more or less complete. The largest groups of Romanesque survivors are in areas that were less prosperous in subsequent periods, including parts of southern France, northern Spain and rural Italy. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word Romanesque means descended from Roman and was first used in English to designate what are now called Romance languages, Romance language is not degenerated Latin language. Latin language is degenerated Romance language, Romanesque architecture is not debased Roman architecture. Roman architecture is debased Romanesque architecture, the first use in a published work is in William Gunns An Inquiry into the Origin and Influence of Gothic Architecture. The term is now used for the more restricted period from the late 10th to 12th centuries, Many castles exist, the foundations of which date from the Romanesque period. Most have been altered, and many are in ruins. By far the greatest number of surviving Romanesque buildings are churches, the scope of Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture was the first distinctive style to spread across Europe since the Roman Empire. In the more northern countries Roman building styles and techniques had never been adopted except for official buildings, although the round arch continued in use, the engineering skills required to vault large spaces and build large domes were lost. There was a loss of continuity, particularly apparent in the decline of the formal vocabulary of the Classical Orders. In Rome several great Constantinian basilicas continued in use as an inspiration to later builders, the largest building is the church, the plan of which is distinctly Germanic, having an apse at both ends, an arrangement not generally seen elsewhere. Another feature of the church is its regular proportion, the plan of the crossing tower providing a module for the rest of the plan. These features can both be seen at the Proto-Romanesque St. Michaels Church, Hildesheim, 1001–1030, the style, sometimes called First Romanesque or Lombard Romanesque, is characterised by thick walls, lack of sculpture and the presence of rhythmic ornamental arches known as a Lombard band
7.
Byzantine architecture
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Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Later Roman or Eastern Roman Empire. Byzantine architecture was influenced by Roman and Greek architecture and later Sassanian. Early Byzantine architecture drew upon earlier elements of Roman architecture, stylistic drift, technological advancement, and political and territorial changes meant that a distinct style gradually resulted in the Greek cross plan in church architecture. Most of the structures are sacred in nature, with secular buildings mostly known only through contemporaneous descriptions. Prime examples of early Byzantine architecture date from Justinian Is reign and survive in Ravenna and Istanbul, secular structures include the ruins of the Great Palace of Constantinople, the innovative walls of Constantinople and Basilica Cistern. A frieze in the Ostrogothic palace in Ravenna depicts an early Byzantine palace, remarkable engineering feats include the 430 m long Sangarius Bridge and the pointed arch of Karamagara Bridge. The period of the Macedonian dynasty, traditionally considered the epitome of Byzantine art, has not left a legacy in architecture. The cross-in-square type also became predominant in the Slavic countries which were Christianized by Salonikas missionaries during the Macedonian period, only national forms of architecture can be found in abundance due to this. Those styles can be found in many Transcaucasian countries, such as Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and other Slavic lands, the Paleologan period is well represented in a dozen former churches in Istanbul, notably St Saviour at Chora and St Mary Pammakaristos. Unlike their Slavic counterparts, the Paleologan architects never accented the vertical thrust of structures, as a result, there is little grandeur in the late medieval architecture of Byzantium. Other churches from the years predating the fall of Constantinople survive on Mount Athos. Those of the type we must suppose were nearly always vaulted. The most famous church of this type was that of the Holy Apostles, vaults appear to have been early applied to the basilican type of plan, for instance, at Hagia Irene, Constantinople, the long body of the church is covered by two domes. At Saint Sergius, Constantinople, and San Vitale, Ravenna, churches of the central type, finally, at Hagia Sophia a combination was made which is perhaps the most remarkable piece of planning ever contrived. This unbroken area, about 260 ft long, the part of which is over 100 ft wide, is entirely covered by a system of domical surfaces. Above the conchs of the small apses rise the two great semi-domes which cover the hemicycles, and between these bursts out the vast dome over the central square. On the two sides, to the north and south of the dome, it is supported by vaulted aisles in two storeys which bring the form to a general square. At the Holy Apostles five domes were applied to a cruciform plan, after the 6th century there were no churches built which in any way competed in scale with these great works of Justinian, and the plans more or less tended to approximate to one type
8.
W. E. B. Du Bois
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William Edward Burghardt W. E. B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. Du Bois was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909, Du Bois rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation and he referred to this group as the Talented Tenth and believed that African Americans needed the chances for advanced education to develop its leadership. Racism was the target of Du Boiss polemics, and he strongly protested against lynching, Jim Crow laws. His cause included people of color everywhere, particularly Africans and Asians in colonies and he was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to fight for independence of African colonies from European powers. Du Bois made several trips to Europe, Africa and Asia, after World War I, he surveyed the experiences of American black soldiers in France and documented widespread bigotry in the United States military. Du Bois was a prolific author and he wrote one of the first scientific treatises in the field of American sociology, and he published three autobiographies, each of which contains insightful essays on sociology, politics and history. In his role as editor of the NAACPs journal The Crisis, Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life. He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament, the United States Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted a year after his death. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23,1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to Alfred, Mary Silvina Burghardts family was part of the very small free black population of Great Barrington and had long owned land in the state. She was descended from Dutch, African and English ancestors, William Du Boiss maternal great-great-grandfather was Tom Burghardt, a slave, who was held by the Dutch colonist Conraed Burghardt. Tom briefly served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and his son Jack Burghardt was the father of Othello Burghardt, who was the father of Mary Silvina Burghardt. William Du Boiss paternal great-grandfather was James Du Bois of Poughkeepsie, New York, One of James mixed-race sons was Alexander. He traveled and worked in Haiti, where he fathered a son, Alfred, Alexander returned to Connecticut, leaving Alfred in Haiti with his mother. Sometime before 1860, Alfred Du Bois emigrated to the United States and he married Mary Silvina Burghardt on February 5,1867, in Housatonic. Alfred left Mary in 1870, two years after their son William was born, Mary Burghardt Du Bois moved with her son back to her parents house in Great Barrington until he was five. She worked to support her family, until she suffered a stroke in the early 1880s, Great Barrington had a majority European American community, who treated Du Bois generally well
9.
Mary McLeod Bethune
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She attracted donations of time and money, and developed the academic school as a college. It later continued to develop as Bethune-Cookman University and she also was appointed as a national adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of what was known as his Black Cabinet. She was known as The First Lady of The Struggle because of her commitment to better lives for African Americans. Born in Mayesville, South Carolina, to parents who had been slaves and she took an early interest in becoming educated, with the help of benefactors, Bethune attended college hoping to become a missionary in Africa. She started a school for African-American girls in Daytona Beach, Florida and it later merged with a private institute for African-American boys, and was known as the Bethune-Cookman School. Bethune maintained high standards and promoted the school with tourists and donors and she was president of the college from 1923 to 1942, and 1946 to 1947. She was one of the few women in the world to serve as a president at that time. Bethune was also active in clubs, which were strong civic organizations supporting welfare and other needs. After working on the campaign for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. She advised him on concerns of people and helped share Roosevelts message and achievements with blacks. At the time, blacks had been disenfranchised in the South since the turn of the century. Upon her death, columnist Louis E. Martin said, She gave out faith and hope as if they were pills, McLeod was born in 1875 in a small log cabin near Mayesville, South Carolina, on a rice and cotton farm in Sumter County. She was the fifteenth of seventeen children born to Sam and Patsy McLeod, Most of her siblings had been born into slavery. Her mother worked for her master, and her father farmed cotton near a large house they called The Homestead. Her parents wanted to be independent so had sacrificed to buy a farm for the family, as a child, Mary would accompany her mother to deliver white people’s wash. Allowed to go into the white children’s nursery, Mary became fascinated with their toys, One day she picked up a book and as she opened it, a white child took it away from her, saying she didn’t know how to read. Mary decided then that the difference between white and colored people was the ability to read and write. McLeod attended Mayesvilles one-room black schoolhouse, Trinity Mission School, which was run by the Presbyterian Board of Missions of Freedmen and she was the only child in her family to attend school, so each day, she taught her family what she had learned
10.
Paul Robeson
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Paul Leroy Robeson was an American bass singer and actor who became involved with the Civil Rights Movement. He became politically involved in response to the Spanish Civil War, fascism and his advocacy of anti-imperialism, affiliation with communism, and criticism of the United States government caused him to be blacklisted during the McCarthy era. In 1915 Robeson won a scholarship to Rutgers College, where he was twice named a consensus All-American and was the class valedictorian. Almost eighty years later, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and he received his LL. B. from Columbia Law School, while playing in the National Football League. At Columbia, he sang and acted in productions, and, after graduating, he became a figure in the Harlem Renaissance with performances in The Emperor Jones. Robeson first appeared outside the US in 1928 in the London premier of Show Boat, Robeson next appeared as Othello in London before becoming an international cinema star during the 1930s through roles in Show Boat and Sanders of the River. He became increasingly attuned to the sufferings of people of other cultures, despite being warned of his economic ruin if he became politically active, he set aside his theatrical career to advocate the cause of the Republican forces of the Spanish Civil War. He then became active in the Council on African Affairs, during World War II, he supported Americas war efforts and won accolades for his portrayal of Othello on Broadway. However, his history of supporting pro-Soviet policies brought scrutiny from the FBI, after the war ended, the CAA was placed on the Attorney Generals List of Subversive Organizations and Robeson was investigated during the age of McCarthyism. Due to his decision not to recant his public advocacy of pro-Soviet policies, he was denied a passport by the U. S. State Department and he moved to Harlem and published a periodical critical of United States policies. His right to travel was restored by the 1958 United States Supreme Court decision, Kent v. Dulles. In the early 1960s he retired and lived the years of his life privately in Philadelphia. Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1898, to Reverend William Drew Robeson and his mother was from a prominent Quaker family of mixed ancestry, African, Anglo-American, and Lenape. Robeson had three brothers, William Drew, Jr. Reeve, and Ben, and one sister, in 1900, a disagreement between William and white financial supporters of Witherspoon arose with apparent racial undertones, which were prevalent in Princeton. William, who had the support of his entirely black congregation, the loss of his position forced him to work menial jobs. Three years later when Robeson was six, his mother, who was nearly blind, William found a stable parsonage at the St. Thomas A. M. E. Zion in 1910, where Robeson would fill in for his father during sermons when he was called away. His athletic dominance elicited racial taunts which he ignored, prior to his graduation, he won a statewide academic contest for a scholarship to Rutgers. He took a job as a waiter in Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island
11.
Ralph Bunche
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Ralph Johnson Bunche was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Israel. He was the first African American to be so honored in the history of the prize and he was involved in the formation and administration of the United Nations. In 1963, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy, for more than two decades, Bunche served as chair of the Department of Political Science at Howard University, where he also taught generations of students. Bunche was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1903 or 1904 and his father Fred Bunche was a barber and his mother, Olive Agnes, was an amateur musician, from a large and talented family. Her siblings included Charlie and Ethel Johnson and his maternal grandfather, Thomas Nelson Johnson, was mixed-race African American, the son of Eleanor Madden and her husband. Eleanor was the daughter of an African-American slave mother and Irish planter father. Thomas Nelson Johnson graduated from Shurtleff College in Alton, Illinois in 1875, in September 1875 he married Lucy Taylor, one of his students. Genealogist Paul Heinegg thinks that Fred Bunche were probably descended from the South Carolina branch of the family and he said that the censuses of 1900 and 1910 for Detroit list several members of the Bunch family who were born in South Carolina, but Fred Bunch was not among them. He believes that Bunche was descended from Bunch ancestors established as people of color in Virginia before the American Revolution. There were men of the Bunch surname in South Carolina by the end of the 18th century, the Bunch/Bunche surname was extremely rare. Several generations of the Bunch men, free men of color, married white women colonists from the British Isles, when Ralph was a child, his family moved to Toledo, Ohio, where his father looked for work. They returned to Detroit in 1909 after his sister Grace was born, with the help of their maternal aunt and their father did not live with the family again after Ohio and had not been a good provider. But he followed them when they moved to New Mexico, because of the declining health of his mother and uncle, Ralph moved with his maternal grandmother, Lucy Taylor Johnson, to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1915. His mother died in 1917, his uncle committed suicide three months later, in 1918, Lucy Taylor Johnson moved with the two Bunche grandchildren to the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles, which was then mostly white. Fred Bunche later remarried, and Ralph never saw him again, Bunche was a brilliant student, a debater, and the valedictorian of his graduating class at Jefferson High School. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and graduated cum laude. Using the money his community raised for his studies and a scholarship at Harvard University. To help with living expenses at Harvard, Bunche sought a job at a local bookstore, the owner offered him a part-time job, and Bunche ran the store to his employers satisfaction
