1981 Condoleezza Rice receives her PhD from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver and joins the faculty at Stanford University in California.
1985 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1985 Angelena Rice dies in Denver.
1988 George H. W. Bush, who was vice president under President Ronald Reagan, is elected the forty-first president of the United States.
1989–1991 Condoleezza Rice serves on the National Security Council under President George H. W. Bush.
1989 November 9: The Berlin Wall is opened.
1991 Boris Yeltsin seizes power from Mikhail Gorbachev, and the USSR is disbanded.
1993 Condoleezza Rice becomes provost of Stanford University.
2000 George W. Bush is elected the forty-third president of the United States.
2000 John Rice dies in Palo Alto, California.
2001 January 20: Condoleezza Rice is appointed national security advisor.
2005 January 26: Condoleezza Rice is appointed secretary of state.
glossary
Abernathy, Ralph (1926–1990): Civil rights leader, a founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the man Martin Luther King Jr. described as his best friend. In 1968, when King was shot, Abernathy held him in his arms as he died. Weeks later, Abernathy went on to lead the Poor People’s Campaign march on Washington. He continued to spearhead efforts to improve the lives of disenfranchised Americans of all races until his death.
Affirmative Action: Policy of offering increased economic, political, and social opportunities to minorities, women, and other underrepresented groups with the goal of increasing diversity and correcting years of discrimination. The practice is the subject of much controversy.
Albright, Tenley (1935–): American figure skater, winner of the silver medal at the 1952 Olympics and the gold medal at the 1956 Olympics. Albright took up skating when she was a girl as part of her recovery from polio. In 1961, she graduated from Harvard University and became a surgeon.
Attica Correctional Facility: In September 1971, inmates of this New York prison revolted to protest bad conditions, taking control of the facility and holding a number of guards hostage. The riot ended after four days with ten prison employees and twenty-nine prisoners dead.
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685–1750): German composer highly regarded for his religious pieces and organ works.
Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770–1827): Influential pianist and composer of symphonies. Before he turned thirty, he began to lose his hearing, but he continued to produce extraordinary pieces despite his deafness later in life.
Berlin Wall (1961–1989): Guarded barrier separating West Berlin from East Berlin and East Germany during the Cold War. By the early 1950s, Germany and its capital city, Berlin, had been divided into two territories: West Germany, allied with the United States, Great Britain and France, and East Germany, allied with the Soviet Union. The Wall became symbolic of the divide between communist Eastern Europe and the democratic West. The Berlin Wall collapsed on November 9, 1989, ushering in a series of events that unified East and West Germany and ended the Cold War.
Black Panthers: Activists in Oakland, California, founded the Black Panther Party for Self-defense to protect their communities from police brutality. The influential party grew controversial when it began to call for radical measures such as arming all blacks. Conflicts between the Black Panthers and the police were common in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bond, Julian (1940–): Black activist and civil rights leader who helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was elected to the Georgia state legislature as a representative and then as a senator. For many years Bond was the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the national chairman of the NAACP.
Brezhnev, Leonid (1906–1982): Communist leader of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982.
Brown, Jim (1936–): Running back for the Cleveland Browns football team for nine years.
Bush, George H. W. (1924–): Elected the forty-first president of the United States. Joined the U.S. Navy at age eighteen, becoming its youngest flier, and served in World War II, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action, among other awards. Later Bush attended Yale University, then moved to Texas, where he started an oil business and became active in politics. After serving as vice president under Ronald Reagan (1981–1989), Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Nine months into his presidency, the Berlin Wall was torn down. When Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, Bush sent U.S. troops to join allied forces in expelling Saddam Hussein’s forces from its neighbor during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Bush, George W. (1946–): One of four sons of George H. W. Bush. He spent six years as governor of Texas before being elected the forty-third president of the United States (2001–2009). Within eight months of his taking office, on September 11, 2001, terrorists flew two commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center towers in New York and one into the Pentagon in Washington; a fourth hijacked plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. In all, nearly three thousand people died. President Bush declared a war on terror and launched military campaigns in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
Carmichael, Stokely (1941–1998): Black activist, a founder of the SNCC, and the originator of the motto “Black Power.” Carmichael was a good friend of the Rice family and frequently lectured in John W. Rice’s courses at Denver University.
Carter, James Earl “Jimmy” (1924–): Thirty-ninth president of the United States (1977–1981). After his bid for reelection failed, he founded the Carter Center, which works to advance global peace and human rights. Carter is also an ardent supporter of Habitat for Humanity, an organization through which volunteers build houses for those in need. He remains active in international diplomacy and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Civil Rights Act of 1964: Historic legislation passed during the civil rights movement and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson that prohibited segregation in places of public accommodation.
Clinton, William Jefferson “Bill” (1946–): Forty-second president of the United States (1993–2001). Clinton served during a time of relative peace and economic expansion. In 1998, Congress began impeachment proceedings against him after he was accused of misconduct with a White House intern; he apologized to the nation, and his approval rating remained high until he left office. Clinton’s wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was elected to the U.S. Senate and became secretary of state under President Barack Obama.
Cold War (c. 1947–1991): State of political hostility and military threats that existed after World War II between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Communism: Political ideology in which the central government controls the economy. In contrast to democracies, leaders in communist governments rise from within a single political party, and the state places strict limits on personal freedoms and political expression.
Connor, Theophilus Eugene “Bull” (1887–1973): Public safety commissioner of Birmingham, Alabama, during the 1960s and a staunch supporter of segregation known for his brutality.