Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family - читать бесплатно онлайн полную версию книги автора Condoleezza Rice (Photograph) #50

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^{My great-grandfather was illiterate, but my great-grandmother, Julia Head, was a favored household slave who had learned to read as a young girl.}

^{My father at three years old and his sister, Theresa, at five, shown here with my grandparents. Daddy was an easygoing personality and a superb athlete. Theresa was reclusive but brilliant.}

^{The son of sharecroppers, Granddaddy Rice received a scholarship to study at Stillman College after agreeing to become a Presbyterian minister. He was an “educational evangelist,” establishing local schools and impressing upon his students the importance of attending college.}

^{My mother, Angelena (right), at three, and her sister, Mattie, at five. The cute little darlings were featured here as “calendar” girls for the local barbershop.}

^{My maternal grandmother, Mattie Lula Parrom, had rich-brown skin and very high cheekbones, attesting to an ill-defined American Indian heritage. She is pictured here at her graduation from St. Mark’s Academy, a “finishing” school for well-to-do young black women.}

^{After running away from home, my maternal grandfather, Albert Ray III, found himself alone in a train station one evening with just one token in his pocket. “Old Man Wheeler,” the patriarch of a white family, brought him home and raised him with his sons.}

^{Mother (far right), her brother, Alto, and her sister, Gee (far left) were often reminded by their parents to maintain their dignity despite the degrading circumstances of segregated Birmingham. They and their cousin, Kate, are pictured here with my grandfather’s truck.}

^{Daddy completed college and seminary at Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina. Like his father, he would become an educational evangelist and mentor students in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Denver, and Palo Alto.}

^{My mother’s students remembered her as an extraordinary beauty but also as a demanding teacher whom they obeyed despite her diminutive stature.}

^{Here I am sitting in Mother’s lap, my little foot poking out from underneath the blanket. Had I been born a boy, my father would have named me John. But Mother got her way—a girl named Condoleezza, meaning “with sweetness.”}

^{Mother believed passionately in the importance of the arts and organized student-led performances wherever she taught. Here, the two of us pose for the cameras after one of her productions. It was late, and I was clearly ready to go home.}

^{I started to play the piano at three. The little organ pictured here didn’t have enough keys in the bass, so after I learned “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” my parents found the money one day to rent a real piano. I began to play at recitals throughout the city. Here I am playing for the new teachers’ conference. I still don’t understand my mother’s decision to have me wear that fuzzy white hat.}

^{I spent the first three years of my life living with my parents in a small apartment in the back of Westminster Presbyterian, my father’s church.}

^{Mother and me, dressed in our swimsuits. I did not learn proper swimming techniques until I was twenty-five because Eugene “Bull” Connor closed Birmingham’s recreational facilities after the courts ordered him to integrate them.}

^{Here I am eyeing Santa Claus suspiciously. A few years later when we went to see Saint Nick, a racial incident almost broke out when my father noticed that the Santa in question was treating black and white children differently. Daddy was prepared to “pull all that stuff off him and expose him as just another cracker.” Fortunately, Santa got the body language and treated me very well.}

^{Mother filled our home with beautiful, well-preserved mahogany furniture. The sofa on which my mother and I are sitting resides in my home today.}

^{Courtesy of Chris McNair.}

^{I liked but didn’t love school. I got good grades despite a tendency toward procrastination. Clearly art (notice the string of Cs) was not my strong suit.}

^{Here I am standing outside the White House during a family trip to D.C. My father said that I proclaimed, “I will work in there some day.” I don’t remember saying that, but my parents did have me convinced that even if I couldn’t have a hamburger at Woolworth’s lunch counter, I could grow up to be President of the United States.}

^{Daddy established a kindergarten program at his church. Here, at a “graduation” ceremony for his students, he is handing a diploma to Denise McNair, one of the four little girls who were killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963.}

^{Courtesy of Chris McNair}

^{Daddy’s youth programs were renowned throughout the city. Here I am standing with members of Westminster’s children’s choir in the back row, second from the left.}

^{It was in 1961 that Eugene “Bull” Connor decided to close Birmingham’s recreational facilities rather than integrate them. He received wide support from whites, like the author of this letter.}

^{Eugene “Bull” Connor Papers, Birmingham, Alabama, Public Library Archives, Cat. #268.8.12.}

^{Local civil rights leaders urged black customers to boycott white merchants who did not treat them equally. I was disappointed that we had to forgo our annual Christmas shopping but was old enough to understand the larger issues at stake.}

^{Birmingham Civil Rights Institute}

^{While the civil rights movement is remembered for nonviolent civil disobedience, that was not always the case. A full-scale riot erupted on May 11, 1963, with black protesters setting fire to police cars and confronting an armored personnel carrier rumored to contain Bull Connor himself. My parents and I went to survey the damage that next morning.}

^{Associated Press}

^{My school was selected to participate in the city’s first integrated book fair at the Tutwiler Hotel. Here I am displaying my reading project. Mrs. Green, our teacher, was very proud to say that our presentations were far superior to the “shabby” ones of the white kids.}

^{I took up figure skating while my parents pursued graduate work at the University of Denver. I was simply not very good. “It’s amazing you can do a jump,” one judge remarked. “You never actually leave the ice.”}

^{The rigorous academics at St. Mary’s Academy prepared me well for college. Life also revolved around trying to attract the boys at our brother schools, Mullen Prep and Regis High. Plaid skirts, bobby socks, and saddle shoes were part of the uniform.}

^{Courtesy of St. Mary’s Academy, 1969–1970 Yearbook}

^{During my senior year at St. Mary’s, Daddy “presented” me (top middle) at the Owl Club cotillion, a debutante ball for accomplished black high school girls. I felt totally out of place, since I had already transitioned to being a college student, taking classes at the University of Denver.}

^{Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection; photo by Burnis McCloud}

^{My father said that I couldn’t live in the dorm because “he knew what went on in there.” So I pledged Alpha Chi Omega. Here I am (back, right), pictured with my sisters.}

^{Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Penrose Library, University of Denver}

^{As an assistant dean at the University of Denver, Daddy was the liaison to students during the raucous Vietnam War demonstrations, such as this one on Denver’s Carnegie Field in 1971.}

^{Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Penrose Library, University of Denver}

^{I thought I’d found the man I wanted to marry, Rick Upchurch (center), a wide receiver for the Denver Broncos. He is pictured here with Rubin Carter, the Broncos’ nose tackle, and my father, who is holding two-year-old Brian, the son of wide receiver Haven Moses and my good friend Joyce.}

^{After deciding to abandon my dream of being a concert pianist, I wandered into a course in international politics taught by Josef Korbel (center). In one of those odd coincidences, the man who opened up the world of Soviet studies to me was the father of Madeleine Albright. Here I am (leaning forward) in Dr. Korbel’s “Comparative Communism” class.}

^{Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Penrose Library, University of Denver}

^{I received my PhD in August 1981 with a job offer from Stanford in hand. That morning, Daddy gave me a set of classic books that Granddaddy Rice had purchased during the Great Depression, despite his modest means. It remains one of the proudest moments of my life.}

^{Stokely Carmichael (seated) was a regular speaker in my father’s courses and even at an adult education seminar at virtually all-white Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Denver. This radical black activist was a good friend of the family.}

^{Courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Penrose Library, University of Denver}

^{At Stanford, I developed a close circle of friends, including Randy Bean (center), Chip Blacker (left), and Louis Olave (right). My father loved Chip and Louis’s dinners, followed by music played on Louis’s amped-up stereo.}

^{Courtesy of Chip Blacker and Louis Olave}

^{Jendayi Frazer was a sophomore in one of my first classes at Stanford and, later, my first PhD student. She would go on to become the Africa specialist at the NSC, ambassador to South Africa, and the assistant secretary for African affairs at the State Department.}

^{I first flew aboard Air Force One while working for President George H. W. Bush. Here is my maiden voyage in April 1989 on the way to the President’s historic speech in Hamtramck, Michigan, welcoming revolutionary events in Poland.}

^{George Bush Presidential Library and Museum}

^{I first met Gen. Colin Powell while I was working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. He was serving as deputy national security advisor for President Reagan, and this first meeting gave rise to a friendship that I value to this day.}

^{Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff}

^{During one of our nightly phone conversations long after my mother’s death, Daddy told me he planned to remarry. His intended bride was Clara Bailey, a principal in the Ravenswood School District. I couldn’t have been happier for him, and I was thrilled to have the chance to travel back to California for the wedding.}

^{When we scheduled the Malta Summit for December 1989, we didn’t account for the weather. Here I am trying to hold on aboard the Maxim Gorky, a Soviet cruise ship.}

^{Rice Personal Collection}

^{Here I am greeting Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev during the 1990 Washington Summit. Gorbachev was losing control of the revolution he had unleashed; the Soviet Union would cease to exist less than eighteen months after this picture was taken.}

^{George Bush Presidential Library and Museum}

^{A close mentor and friend, Gen. Brent Scowcroft (right) invited me to work at the National Security Council, where he served as national security advisor to President George H. W. Bush. Here we are toward the end of my service, standing with Brent’s deputy, Bob Gates, who would later serve as secretary of defense.}

^{George Bush Presidential Library and Museum}

^{After returning to Stanford, I provided on-air commentary for ABC News about Soviet affairs. I was pleased to learn that the President, pictured here at Kennebunkport, was still interested in my advice.}

^{George Bush Presidential Library and Museum}

^{President Bush successfully led the United States and its allies through the uncharted territory of ending the Cold War. He and Mrs. Barbara Bush have been wonderful mentors and friends. Here we enjoy a common love of tennis while vacationing at his summer home in Maine.}

^{Rice Personal Collection}

^{Daddy was so proud to see his daughter working for the President of the United States. Here we stand with President Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush in 1992.}

^{George Bush Presidential Library and Museum}

^{When I was Stanford’s provost, President Gerhard Casper and I led efforts to reform undergraduate education, establishing freshman and sophomore seminars. I loved teaching these small classes, such as this one on the Soviet Union.}

^{When budget cuts forced me to make difficult decisions, Chicano students set up a tent city on the Quad and staged a hunger strike. Here, Gerhard (left) and I face the students in front of our offices.}

^{Daddy served on the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Today, annual fellowships are given in his honor, a fitting tribute to his life’s work in education.}

^{Courtesy of the Chancellor’s Office, California Community Colleges; photo by Sam Wood}

^{Gene Washington, best known as a former NFL wide receiver, remains one of my closest friends to this day.}

^{I have been blessed with a wonderful extended family, including (from left to right) Will Alston, my uncle Alto, my aunt Connie, my cousin Lativia, Aunt Gee, my stepbrother, Greg, and my stepmother, Clara.}

^{In 1992, Susan Ford Dorsey and I tapped several other community leaders and launched an after-school enrichment program for disadvantaged children in nearby East Palo Alto. We called it the Center for a New Generation, and it thrives today as a part of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.}

^{Courtesy of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula}