Voices of Freedom: Condoleezza Rice
- Jun 12
- 2 min read
Highlighting Juneteenth
Condoleezza Rice
(b. 1954)
Scholar, Secretary of State
“If you’re always in the company of people who agree with you, you're going to think of people who don't agree with you as venal or stupid. ... That is the source of illiberalism, when you are unable to listen to someone who thinks differently. That’s when democracies are in trouble.”
Condoleezza Rice was born in Montgomery, Alabama, the daughter of John Wesley and Angelena Ray Rice. Her mother taught science and music in a local high school, and her father was a Presbyterian minister and, later, dean of students at Stillman College, Tuskaloosa, Alabama. Her ancestors had been enslaved. Some, after emancipation, had been sharecroppers.
Her given name, Condoleezza, comes from the musical term “con dolcezza,” “with sweetness,” perhaps reflecting her mother’s musical background. Rice herself studied piano from an early age, and is a gifted pianist.
Though her parents sheltered her as best they could, Rice could not help but experience the indignities of racial discrimination. Then in 1963, when she was eight, her friend Denise McNair was murdered when white supremacists bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Dr Rice later wrote that that event was a turning point in her life.
In 1967, her family moved to Denver, where Rice attended high school, then the University of Denver. Initially a music major, she switched to international relations after attending a course taught by Josef Korbel (a scholar who also is Madeline Albright’s father), and graduated cum laude in 1974. Over the next few years, she earned her master’s in political science at Notre Dame, studied Russian at Moscow State University, and worked as an intern for the State Department. In 1981, she earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Denver.
From 1987 to 1993, Dr Rice taught at Stanford University. There, she met Brent Scowcroft, who was National Security Advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. Scowcroft was impressed, and recruited Dr Rice to serve as Soviet specialist on the National Security Council. She also served on the boards of several major corporations, including Chevon (the supertanker SS Condoleezza Rice is named for her); as provost of Stanford University; and as a consultant for nuclear-arms negotiations with several nations.
In 2001, Dr Rice was named National Security Advisor by President George W. Bush. In 2005, she succeeded Colin Powell as Secretary of State, serving until the end of President Bush’s second term.
Since her time as secretary of state, Dr Rice has lectured widely and written several books, including her personal memoirs.
You can borrow Condoleezza Rice’s memoir, Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me from the Kenosha Public Library. The Kenosha Public Library also carries Dr Rice’s No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington.
