Biography
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 African American woman (and second woman) to hold the post, and went on to become the first African American woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State. (She was the nation’s 66th Secretary of State, serving from January 2005 to 2009.)
“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.” – Condoleezza Rice