Speaker Explores The Legacy Of Ralph Bunche, First African-American Nobel Peace Prize Winner, November 10

Chestertown, MD, October 23, 2003 — Washington College's International Week presents “The Legacy of Ralph Bunche,” a lecture by Badi Foster, president of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, on Monday, November 10, at 7 p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
Though few recall his name, Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche (1903-1971) was the first African American and the first person of color anywhere in the world to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Bunche received the prize in 1950, hailed for his work as a United Nations mediator in Palestine from 1947 to 1949, the height of the bloodiest confrontations between Arabs and Israelis. After months of ceaseless negotiating, Bunche secured an armistice between the fledgling State of Israel and the Arab states. For more information on the life of Dr. Ralph Bunche, visit www.pbs.org/ralphbunche.
Dr. Badi Foster is an educator, an advocate for social change and development for the poor and underprivileged, and an innovative management professional. In November 2000, Dr. Foster was named the sixth president of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, America's oldest continuously operating foundation serving the needs of African Americans, Native Americans, Africans, and the rural and urban poor. The Fund has been a pioneer in pursuing equity for and unity among diverse ethnic and racial groups while promoting the core value of education for human development. Dr. Foster's life has mirrored those core principles. Born in Chicago, he spent his adolescent years in Africa and completed secondary school in Morocco. He earned an undergraduate degree in international relations with an emphasis on Africa from the University of Denver, and as a Fulbright fellow focused his doctoral research on the impact of rapid urbanization in Africa. Dr. Foster has served as consultant to the Ford Foundation for projects centering on higher education in Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Tunisia. He received his Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University and has received many academic honors and served in numerous public service positions.
The lecture is sponsored by Washington College's Student Government Association Diversity Affairs Committee and Office of International and Diversity Affairs.