"Our work has only begun.  We have an historic opportunity to shape a global balance of power that favors freedom.  Even
more important than military and economic power is the power of ideas, the power of compassion, and the power of hope."
Growing up in the sixties
Condoleeza grew up in Alabama, and experienced firsthand
the injustices of Birmingham’s discriminatory laws and
attitudes.  She was instructed to walk proudly in public and
to use the facilities at home rather than subject herself to
the indignity of “colored” facilities in town.  As Rice recalls of
her parents, “they refused to allow the limits and injustices of
the time limit our horizons.”

Condoleeza recalls being relegated to a storage room at a
department store instead of a regular dressing room, barred
from going to the circus or the amusement park, denied hotel
rooms, and even getting bad food at restaurants.  Rice said of
the segregation era: “Those terrible events burned into my
consciousness.”

During the violent days of the Civil Rights Movement, her
father armed himself and kept guard over the house while
Condoleeza practiced the piano.

Determination against adversity
Rice states that growing up during racial segregation taught
her determination against adversity.  Her father instilled in his
daughter that black people would have to prove themselves
worthy of advancement and would simply have to be “twice as
good” to overcome injustices built into the system.  Rice said
“My parents were very strategic, I was going to be so well
prepared, and do all of these things revered in society so well,
that I would be armored somehow from racism.

Inspired by professor
The family moved to Denver Colorado where she studied to
be a concert pianist.  She enrolled at the University of Denver
and attended a course on international politics taught by
Josef Korbel, the father of future Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright.  This experience sparked her interest in
international relations and made her call Korbel
“one of the most central figures in my life.”

Rice attended a memorial service in Montgomery Alabama for
Rosa Parks, an inspiration for the American Civil Rights
Movement.  Rice stated: “I can honestly say that without
Mrs. Parks, I probably would not be standing here today as
secretary of state.”
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