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Quick Facts
- NAME: Condoleezza Rice
- OCCUPATION: Government Official
- BIRTH DATE: November 14, 1954 (Age: 58)
- EDUCATION: University of Denver, University of Notre Dame, University of Denver, Stanford University
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Birmingham, Alabama
- Full Name: Condoleezza Rice
- ZODIAC SIGN: Scorpio
Best Known For
Condoleezza Rice is the first black woman to serve as the United States' national security adviser, as well as the first black woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State (2005-09).
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John McCain - Full Biography (43:23)
Condoleezza Rice - Mini Biography
Condoleezza Rice grew up in Jim Crow Alabama and went on to become the first female National Security Advisor and the first African-American female United States Secretary of State.
Condoleezza Rice - Growing Up in Birmingham
Condoleezza Rice talks about her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, her memories of Martin Luther King, Jr, and witnessing the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
Colin Powell - Mini Biography
After growing up on the streets of the South Bronx, Colin Powell rose through the military ranks to become the 65th U.S. Secretary of State and the first African American appointed to the position.
John McCain - Full Biography
Before leaving to serve his country, John McCain was what many called a "party boy," and not the tough-as-nails hero he would be labeled later in life.
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Play NowCondoleezza Rice. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 01:49, May 23, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/condoleezza-rice-9456857.
Condoleezza Rice. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/condoleezza-rice-9456857 [Accessed 23 May 2013].
"Condoleezza Rice." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 23 2013, 01:49 http://www.biography.com/people/condoleezza-rice-9456857.
"Condoleezza Rice," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/condoleezza-rice-9456857 [accessed May 23, 2013].
"Condoleezza Rice," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/condoleezza-rice-9456857 (accessed May 23, 2013).
Condoleezza Rice [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 23] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/condoleezza-rice-9456857.
Condoleezza Rice, http://www.biography.com/people/condoleezza-rice-9456857 (last visited May 23, 2013).
Condoleezza Rice. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/condoleezza-rice-9456857. Accessed May 23, 2013.
Synopsis
Condoleezza Rice was born on November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama. She grew up surrounded by racism in the segregated South, but went on to become the first woman and first African American to serve as provost of Stanford University. In 2001, Rice was appointed national security adviser by President George W. Bush, becoming the first black woman (and second woman) to hold the post,
Quotes
"I think my father thought I might be president of the United States. I think he would've been satisfied with secretary of state. I'm a foreign policy person and to have a chance to serve my country as the nation’s chief diplomat at a time of peril and consequence, that was enough."
"Differences can be a strength rather than a handicap."
and went on to become the first black woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State. (She was the nation's 66th Secretary of State, serving from January 2005 to 2009.)
Early Life
Condoleezza Rice was born on November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama. The only child of a Presbyterian minister and a teacher, Rice grew up surrounded by racism in the segregated South. She earned her bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Denver in 1974; her master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the University of Denver's Graduate School of International Studies in 1981. That same year, she joined Stanford University as a political science professor—a position that she has held for more than three decades and plans to soon return to, full-time, according to a statement she made in 2012.
In 1993, Rice became the first woman and first African American to serve as provost of Stanford University—a post she held for six years. During that time, she also served as the university's chief budget and academic officer.
Political Career
In the mid-1980s, Rice spent a period in Washington, D.C., working as an international affairs fellow attached to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1989, she became director of Soviet and East European affairs with the National Security Council, and special assistant to President George H.W. Bush during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and German reunification. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military.
A few years later, in 2001, Rice was appointed national security adviser by President George W. Bush, becoming the first black woman (and second woman) to hold the post. She went on to become the first black woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State—she became the nation's 66th Secretary of State in 2004, following Colin Powell's resignation, and served from January 2005 to 2009.
As Secretary of State, Rice has dedicated her department to "Transformational Diplomacy," with a mission of building and sustaining democratic, well-governed states around the world and the Middle East in particular. To that end, she has relocated American diplomats to such hardship locations as Iraq, Afghanistan and Angola, and required them to become fluent in two foreign languages. She also created a high-level position to de-fragment U.S. foreign aid.
Rice's books include Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995) with Philip Zelikow, The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984).
In Recent Years
In August 2012, Rice and South Carolina businesswoman Darla Moore became the first women to (simultaneously) become members of the Augusta National Golf Club, located in Augusta, Georgia.
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