Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has a new memoir Extraordinary Ordinary about the segregated South and the force of family love on her life. Her memories are America's too as she grew up in Birmingham, Alabama when bombing bloodshed propelled the civil rights movement when survival demanded perseverance, resistance and equanimiity. Condi notes that while there has been remakable progress since those days, challenges do persist as many are trapped in zip codes by poverty and race hindering their educational opportunity, employment possibilities as well as living standards.
Professor Rice notes that she prefers the term 'black American' because "African-American mocks the immigrant narrative" saying that her ancestors were enslaved to come to this country and are a significant part of America's beginning and founding population. Condi's story is American history with lessons about race, gender and the generational legacy of being extraordinary.
