Ralph Johnson Bunche, American political scientist, scholar, Nobel Prize winner, and diplomat. Bunche was born on August 7, 1904 in Detroit, Michigan. His father Fred was a barber who owned a racially segregated barber shop that catered solely to white customers. His mother, Olive Agnes Johnson, was an amateur musician. Young Ralph spent his early years in Michigan. However, due to the relatively poor health of his mother, the family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico when he was ten years old. The family believed the dry climate of the region would be more conducive to his mother's ’ health. Upon his mother's death, Ralph and his two sisters were resettled in Los Angeles, California where they joined their grandmother who raised them in a South Central neighborhood that was then predominantly white. It was during his teenage years in Los Angeles where Bunche proved to be a brilliant student. He excelled in all of his high school courses and graduated ...