United Nations mediator Ralp Bunche became the first African American (and first person of color) to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 when he owned this house. He chaired the Department of Political Science at Howard University from 1928 to 1950. After nearly a year of ceaseless negotiations in 1949, Bunche obtained signatures on armistice agreements between Israel and the Arab States. Bunche was always active in the civil rights movement and helped lead the 1965 march organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in Montgomery, Alabama. He had this house built in 1941, and although there was a whites-only school around the corner, his children had to be driven three miles to the closest black school. Bunche passed away in 1971