Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State




Born November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama
is the second woman to be US Secretary of State
She is the first black woman to be Secretary of State, and she holds the highest position in a presidential cabinet that any black woman has held
She says she became a Republican when she watched the 1984 Democratic Convention on TV, and decided that the Democrats' appeals to "women, minorities, and the poor" really meant "helpless people and the poor". Rice said, "I decided I'd rather be ignored than patronized."
She was raised in segregated Birmingham during the civil rights movement. A childhood friend, 11-year-old Denise McNair, was one of the four young girls killed in the bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. Rice never became involved in the civil rights movement, but she says, "My parents had me absolutely convinced that, well, you may not be able to have a hamburger at Woolworth's but you can be President of the United States.
She skipped first and seventh grades, entered college at 15, holds three degrees including a doctorate in political science, and earned her Master's in just one year's study
Became Secretary of State on January 26, 2005.
Became the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor, on January 22, 2001.