June 11, 2023 Condoleezza Rice


Condoleezza Rice has earned distinction as a scholar, expert on international politics, and with her appointments as the first African American woman National Security Advisor and Secretary of State of the United States.

Rice was born on November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama to John Wesley Rice, Jr., a Presbyterian minister and school counselor and Angelena (Ray) Rice, a public school teacher.  Influenced heavily by her parents, Rice, their only child, showed an exceptional intelligence and scholastic focus at a very early age.  Despite growing up in the black middle-class neighborhood of Titusville in Birmingham, Condoleezza and her family could not escape the “Jim Crow” policies of that city.  Denise McNair, one of four young girls who died in the 16th St. Baptist Church Bombing in September 1963, was Rice’s childhood friend and playmate.

1989.  In 1991 Rice returned to Stanford University as Provost (the second highest administrative rank on campus after the University President).  There Rice, the first female, first person of color, and youngest (age 36) person to hold the post, helped transform a $20 million annual deficit into a $14 million surplus in just three years.

When George W. Bush was elected President of the United States in 2001, he chose Rice as his National Security Advisor, making her the first woman and only the second African American (after Colin Powell) to hold the position.  In 2005, after Colin Powell’s resignation as Secretary of State, Rice was chosen as the 66th United States Secretary of State, one of the most powerful positions in Federal government. She was the second woman (after Madeline Albright) to hold this position.

As a principal architect of the foreign policy of the Bush Administration, Condoleezza Rice has had both proponents and detractors in the United States and abroad.  There is no denying, however, that her focus, determination, scholastic prowess, professional achievements, and expertise in international politics have led her to hold this pivotal post in the government of the United States.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

March 2, 2023 Math & Science

Image
Influential Black Scientists From left to right: Gladys West, Charles Henry Turner, Alice Ball, Percy L. Julian, Sophia B. Jones, Elijah McCoy, Charles Lightfoot Roman. (U.S. Navy, Public domain, DePauw University Archives and Special Collections, Public domain, New York Public Library, Ben Shannon/CBC.) Innovators across disciplines who have made significant, enduring contributions to the world. From the first treatment for leprosy to the foundation of the global positioning system, Black scientists have long been involved in major scientific developments, despite being pushed to the margins, refused jobs, and denied credit for their discoveries.  Charles Henry Turner | Discovered animals can have complex thoughts Among Turner's many discoveries, he was the first to prove that insects have the capacity to hear, and that they can learn by trial and error.  He was one of the first African Americans to earn a PhD from the University of Chicago, and in 1892, was the first Black s...
Read more

June 7, 2023 Sharon Mosely Braun - 1st Black woman in the U.S. Senate

Image
Carol Moseley Braun, the first black woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate, was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 16, 1947. She attended the Chicago Public Schools and received a degree from the University of Illinois in 1969.  She earned her degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1972. Moseley Braun served as assistant prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago from 1972 to 1978. In the latter year she was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives and served in that body for ten years. During her tenure Moseley Braun made educational reform a priority. She also became the first African American assistant majority leader in the history of the Illinois legislature.  Moseley Braun returned to Chicago in 1988 to serve as Cook County Recorder of Deeds. Capitalizing on the public furor over the Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill controversy and in particular the way in which Hill was treated by U.S. Senators, Carol Moseley Braun upset incumbent Senator Alan ...
Read more

March 6, 2023 Auto Designers

Image
Mckinley Thompson Jr.  (November 8, 1922 - March 8, 2006)  McKinley Thompson was the first African American automotive designer, and he was the first African American Designer to work at the Ford Motor Company. C.R. Patterson & Sons - the First Black Owned Car Company. By the late 19th century, the United States had been fully ushered into a period of dramatic industrial and economic growth commonly known as the Gilded Age. Some of the industry’s pioneers and gamechangers Every February, the United States celebrates African Americans’ contributions to society. Black History Month can be traced back to a week in 1926 when Black historians held the first organized commemoration. In the decades that followed, the Civil Rights Movement prompted huge strides in legal and cultural progress, and in 1976, President Gerald Ford made Black History Month official. At around the same time, Black professionals, including car designers, finally began to get some of the opportunities and...
Read more