of more realistic sense of how the whole things works. >> and you noticed the forward is by miangilu. how did you work that out? >> we have been friends for 25 years. i called her up and asked her. :

he is the lead guitarist, sort of. and cat the of course. the night thank you both very much for your time. >> former secretary of state, condoleezza rice recalls her childhood in birmingham, alabama in the 1960s and profiles are parents, john and angelina. ms. rice discusses her memoir with her cousin, can't you thrice, codirector of the infinite project at the millennium more hotels in los angeles. the program runs close to one hour. >> well, we're going to see conflict a little bit for

people. we are not sisters. we are cousins. we are deleted because our father are first cousins and were actually very, very close, both those children and adults. in the deep, connie and i did not meet until i was at stanford and she was speaking at stanford in high school. i'd met her father many, many times a little girl. connie was in college and so we didn't need. but i knew of connie because the time would always come when somebody would say, you know, i thought you were in a program from los angeles and i would not have associated you with your republican party. and everything, there goes my cousin again. [laughter] and i would just step outside the post office and the one time i got confused at to come which is most interesting, condi, so this will come out and said you know, you're a dead ringer for

that girl who's related to that sister the white house. and i don't know either of your names, but she is important. [laughter] >> so it's been a pleasure boat to get to know each other better over the last several years. we spent more time together in the last 10 years. what is really wonderful about getting to share this particular stage with connie is to talk about "extraordinary, ordinary people" because the books first or second chapter is the life in the race. and if the book really about our families and how they were educationally balanced and people who believe in social justice, so that we share. >> first of all, the family so proud. this is a wonderful tribute not just here. who are beyond extraordinary, but to the whole family. and i think the whole family is thanks for doing it.

in the thing that is so moving about it is an going through your early life, you are showing that you lived in sorted the last chapter of the jim crow era. and that was important for you to share that with the world. and it has implications for today. what was important to start their? >> well, when i was in government come as you might imagine you think the mike going to say now after eight years? i was going to write and i'm still writing the secretary of state to be memoirs for the last eight years and here's what we did in foreign policy. but i'm often asked the question i decided i wanted to answer, how did you get to be who you are? i said in order to know that, you have to know john and angelina rice. in the ordinary in the title is because my parents were in many ways ordinary people. my mom was a high school

first an english teacher. one of her for students was willie mays, who she taught at fairfield industrial high school. and though she knew nothing about sports, and she says she told him, senator, going to be a ballplayer. if you need to leave class early, go ahead and do that. [laughter] she new tower when she saw it. but she taught school. she was an elegant lady who was a physician who love to bring the arts to her students in this very poor high school. they had operas and they had what they produce. she was a very eloquently the, but a schoolteacher. my dad was also an ordinary a presbyterian minister. later on a university administrator. he was an athlete and a big port scan. in fact, my parents had a big

deal, connie, which may relate to you because i know your name and mining were also the same. my parents had a deal. had i been born a boy, i was going to be named john. and my father had already bought john who is going to be an all-american linebacker. what does a girl, another got the name for condoleezza, which comes from a musical term. my parents were in that way ordinary. i doubt they made more than $60,000 between them and their entire life, but there was no opportunity, educational opportunity that i didn't have. and the extraordinary part comes from the circumstances that you mentioned. i grew up in birmingham, alabama. i was born in 1954. i was 55, so you don't have to start counting. fifty-six next month. [laughter] an appearance there in

birmingham, alabama, fully segregated. i did not have a white classmate until we move to denver when alice 12. you couldn't go to a restaurant you couldn't go to a movie theater. and yet, my parents and the people in our community -- it's also true of this little enclave in birmingham called titusville, a little community i grew up in. this middle-class community have been commenced or may not be able to have a hamburger at the lunch counter, but we could be president of the united states if we wanted to be. and so that's the extraordinary part because they believed very strongly that if you couldn't control your circumstance, which you certainly couldn't in segregated birmingham company can certainly control your response to them. >> that is the extraordinary part of this because the ordinary, if you're african-american, it meant you had to have an extraordinary

capacity to rise above the jim crow suppression. but the lesson for that today i feel like there is a way to rise above it without being bitter. and that's when i finally thought was how to transcend that, how to face the indignity with grace. and so john and angelina, my parents, our great grandparents were born slaves. we share great grandparents. and they were 12 and 13.2 are free. and so we are just -- we're for generations out of slavery, condi, which is an extraordinary advancement. and yet, who is gotten left behind? i know you and i share a passion for those kids who are still at the bottom of the well. and i'm so glad now that you're at the white house you can help get back and get the heavy lifting done. >> well, i think it has lessons for today. first of all, if you don't consider yourself a big time and if you're not giving into

bitterness and if you really do believe that as my parents and her parents thought you might have to be twice as good. they said that by the way, that's just a statement that it was a given. then you can overcome whatever is in front of you. but we were very fortunate. we have parents who were there for us. we have teachers who were there for us. we grew up in communities where our parents were educated and knew how to deliver on that message. and what i worry about today is the kids who are trapped in poverty and race. and for them, there is no way out if they cannot be educated. and when i can look at yourself couldn't tell whether or not you get a good education and i can look at your zip code and tell, then we are doing and being very, very wrong.

we were fortunate that our grandparents were able to get to our parents education. in fact, my grandfather who would've been your granduncle is particularly an interesting case. his name is john wesley rice senior and he was a sharecropper son. they share -- they worked others' land in utah. that is in alabama. and when john wesley rice senior was about 19 years old, he decided that he wanted to get bookwriting and in college. so he asked people coming through how a colored man could get educated. and they told him about little stillman college which was in tuscaloosa presbytery school. so he went off to college. in his first year lake ray. and after his first year, they said so how are you going to pay for her second year?

he said one of cotton. they said you're out of luck. he said the hobbit those boys go to college? they said they want to be presbyterian ministers, said they have what's called a scholarship. and my grandfather said you know, that's exactly what i wanted to be, too. that's what i had in mind. [laughter] and my family has been presbyterian and college-educated ever since. [laughter] so they were very industrious people, but also a little bit ingenious in finding a way to education. >> into the republican party as well. the party of lincoln i can't say quite stay that way. >> the wii is pretty much republican. [laughter] >> while in fact, my father was the republican for a totally instrumental reason at the

beginning. condi mentioned the south. in birmingham was the most segregated city in america. and he was 1952. my parents were actually not married yet. they were courting. so he went down to get registered to vote. and this is the kind of thing you would've sued for. but the parents -- and our specie of what is called the pool tester. and this person would ask questions. and if you pass the question, you could register. and so, my mother who was very fair skin, long hair. the man said to her, so what job do you have? she said i am a schoolteacher. he said you probably know who the first president of the united states with. she said yes, george washington. he said fine, go register. then i looked to my father a big

imposing man given 62, built like a football player. he said to my father, so, how many beans are in that jar. there were hundreds of beans in the jar. and so, my father filled the pool test. my father was very unhappy. we went back we were about 12 minutes church and said don't worry. i'll show you how to get registered. he said, there's a clerk down there and she's a republican that and she's trying to build a republican party. he said she will register anybody who will say they are republican. [laughter] now you didn't register by party, but i suspect this woman was telling you all register you, now go register republican. my father kept his word and registered republican. he was a republican the rest of his life, a very proud republican. he came to it because it was a way to get it to vote. >> my grandfather when he put the goldwater as an time, my

grandmother made him the other. but it is a tradition. >> condi, one of the most moving part of the book that really came through so loud and clear with you felt the fear. i mean, you weren't watching it on television. and so, it was the first terrorism. african-americans experienced terrorism before we even knew what national terrorism was about. and the state-sponsored terrorism of the white supremacists claim. and so you had direct contact with that. and i think about the kids who now lives in fear of a different kind of terrorism. it's not from a clan. it's from gangs. i wanted you to kind of hearken back to that entire day today. >> terrace has something in common whether it's a clan or the way they gangs terrorized a

community or the terrorism that we see that we experienced on september 11th and continue to fight. they were not just to fight. they want to terrorize to the point that they can humiliate and control. and in effect, they wanted to send a message. don't process. and indeed, that was what was going on in birmingham in 1962 in 1963. now, before then birmingham have been aggregated and there were some from time to time. the one thing i wanted to do in this book was to show that as a family in birmingham, you still get up every day, go to school, go to church and the other piano lessons and it's not segregation in truth every waking moment of every day. people lead normal lives. but in 1962 in 1963, that was

all shattered. and birmingham became called bombing and because bombs were going off in communities all the time. i remember one night driving back from my grandparents home in a loud explosion as we were driving up to the house. in those days, 1962, unit that a bomb had gone off. and my father turned the car around and started driving. my mother said where are you going? he said i'm going to the police. she said they probably set it off, what you mean you're going to the police? because there was no such thing as protection for black families from the authorities in birmingham. o'connor was the fifth of jim crow and segregation and he was going to enforce it by whatever means necessary. now, when we reached its culmination was in september of 1963 after a very violent summer

of water hoses and marches and so forth. that became and had realized they weren't getting the response they wanted. so there was something called the children's march of may 1963, where these children had on september 1963, december 15, 1963, we just come to church on my father's church. and it was again a loud boom. and everybody assumed within our community, but it had been two miles away. and pretty soon the phone calls started -- the phone tree started in a been a bomb at 16th street baptist church. a little while later he said the four little girls have been killed in the basement getting ready for sunday school. and a little while later, suddenly we realize that both

denise mcnair, with whom i had known from kindergarten. there's a picture in the book of my father giving to denise mcnair for kindergarten graduation. these four little girls have been killed if these terrorists. and i remember at the time thinking that people must have a letter p. trade to kill four little girls. and being quite frightened. and my dad and son on the porch that whole evening in the september heat with a shotgun on his lap. and that next day, they organized a neighborhood watch and they would patrol with their gun. and they would go to the hub of the community. and once in a while they would fire at night raiders. they never actually shot anybody, but they would do if somebody had come to the community. >> you know, when i was in wanted i remember my dad coming

up in that bombing made headlines. he said what kind of country kills little girls? and so that really was a turning point. and the way you tie it up with a determination to keep the community together and to preach with the allies in the white community because you talk about so many ways. we had to have a lot of allies and not abolition and civil rights revolutions. and so, one of the things that struck me about the book was how you tie together those alliances. they were alliances. they were across racial, and we marched together to get birmingham into the 20th century. and so, today we seem to be fraying along some fault lines. and i wanted to just get your thoughts. we've got to fix this country

together. >> i think they're particularly grace, we have to be very careful in the united states and how we throw around titles like you are a racist. the united states has a very deep set of wounds around race. we have what we call slavery. and it is a wound that is so deep, but i think the worst thing you can say about somebody is your racist. now, the balance has gotten awfully high about race today. and we need to turn on the volume, step back, give each other the benefit of the doubt and try to work again on the kind of common problems that are affect an assault. i don't care what color you are. they're affecting us all. the interesting thing about segregation in birmingham is that of course most dramatically

and effectively black people. but it also affected white people in birmingham in a negative way. it took her made him a long time. they are still trying to overcome an lot of those scars of having been known as the most racist city in the united states. it finally has overcome some of the emphasis because in part of birmingham's reputation the fact is that racism had a very negative effect. jim crow had a very negative effect on the white community, too. and there were a few whites who are trying to break out of it. i tell the story of a doctor. my brother had a very particular section. my father had a mentor who is the white director of guidance counseling for schools in and my father went to mr. sheffield and said

mr. sheffield, my wife has this terrible infection. can you recommend a.? he recommended dr. carmichael. first time we showed up i was seven. for blacks was this horrible kind of paint peeling above the pharmacy step straight up hard benches to sit on. and so after dr. carmichael saw my mother about 5:00 that afternoon on a saturday he said mom, reverend wright, the next time you bring angelina, you bring her after 5:00. and so we came after 5:00 and his white patient population was gone. and though we are able to set up in the front waiting room, where there were magazines and leather chairs and the whole thing. and pretty soon over time dr. carmichael kind of integrated his waiting room because i think for him it was humiliating to have to treat someone like my father that way

because of race. so racism and segregation hurt not just the black community. it heard also the white community. and today when we know that joblessness and homelessness and gang violence on which are working on the violence that comes with that, when we know that poor schools were not preparing in the united states of america is both becoming more and more looking, more fearful, less likely to lead. those are scorches that hurt not just poverty or hispanic poverty but the fall. maybe the one thing we can learn from that. is bridging the divide is not really a matter as charity. it's not a matter of reaching out and trying to help somebody.

it is essential to we are is the people and essential for national security. >> and essential for giving the prosperity back to the kids. >> utah about having to be twice as good. and you and i both know that we're all constantly compensating. in fact you got to compensate for race, language barriers. i mean, that's the human enterprise. and we just take it for granted. if they're part of the problem here that we just haven't done our homework? that we haven't done the really hard work, which is what to go out and pretend like we don't have to kind of unpack that suitcase, to get rid of the baggage. but there's a lot of work to be done. we need to stop slinging the label and doing drive-by labeling and drive-by debate, but really take a look at our joint history.

and to take it back, one of the questions i had is your dad and my dad used to write around. and for the families that couldn't get it together, they would go around to the families that were quite holding it together. and when we disintegrated, when we left, when we moved up and out, moving on up, that kind of fell apart. how do you make up for that? >> you know, every bad system has some things that are not so bad about it. and the black community was very much have integrity in segregated birmingham. and so the middle class in birmingham lived not too far from the working classes and the younger classes. my dad had a church group called youth fellowship crew. and he was the presbyterian, so he would have dances in the back. so his church youth fellowship

was really, really popular. but behind the church there was a government project called walston village. and the kids in that project were part of the fellowship. he would bring them in and many of them say he would go door to door like my grandfather did. he would go door to door and say your child is smart and she had to go to college. and i've got a scholar ship for her wife got a scholarship for her at stony, not even asking the parents comedy what your child to go to college? just for insisting. now, my father is very middle-class church. this wasn't always popular. one of the things i tell the story as my father had a piston for his kids an unfortunate they were out teaching that your children how to shoot. so a number of assaulters and they reverend come we told you they were ready.

but there were no class barriers when it came to making sure that kids are educated, families were taking care of. but when the middle class moved out, as we all did, the people who were left in poverty and raise the most damaged and our community. and how we get that back now i think is one child at a time. i have parents. i had teachers, but i don't care if it's the teacher or parent, if it's the community leader, if it's a minister. every child has got to somehow have some adult is advocating for them. >> and the institutions -- >> that's right. >> i can't let you off the storage without talking about stokely carmichael. >> i was connie who was -- i'm just kidding.

stokely carmichael, any other late 60s, early 70s with the firebrand leader of the student nonviolent coordinating committee. he was one of the original black power people. and my dad was the presbyterian minister invited them to speak at spelman college in 1966 in 1967, much to the dismay of the power elite in tuscaloosa, which we thought was going to start a riot. it was the radical and the blood politics. and i try to understand why that is because he was a service man. he loved the united states of america. i always felt that he admired pride. he admired the dignity with which these radicals confronted racism rather than taking it

with a kind of sublimation and quietness. he was not, for instance, willing to march in 1962, 1963. i remember standing in the hallway and hearing my parents talking in the living room. my father said you know, they want us to go out there and be nonviolent. but if somebody comes after me with the billy club i'm going to try to kill them and then my daughter is going to be an orphan. and so, i think he was somehow attracted to people like stokely. but i did say in the book when it was all the talk about the radicals around than senator obama, i thought i hope they sure don't know some of the people who are at our dinnertable because there was quite a few of them. >> condi, congratulations. it's a wonderful, wonderful book. >> thank you. [applause]

[inaudible] >> well, should be on. if you will remember just to wait for the microphone when your chosen to ask a question, we'd appreciate it. thank you. >> please raise your hand if you have a question. >> my name is pastor charles patrick and i was born in birmingham, alabama. and what you said, sharing the experience of go, that's totally true. my dad experienced the same thing. one of the reasons we had to come to california was he was almost out of town if he hadn't been run out of the naacp he possibly would've been killed. but it's all in the book i gave you earlier.

god bless you. thank you for all of which what you said and encouraging me. for a long period of time i harbored a lot of the anger that my dad went through when he was beaten all that back in birmingham, alabama. my mom went to tuskegee, so that was a place he talked about. but congratulations. i'm excited about your boat. we'll talk with you sometime. >> thank you very much. >> one question. my question is, who was your hero when you grew up? who is your hero? >> that's a good question. you know, i think for all of us there were several periods my family love -- my dad was a republican, but we loved the kennedys. we look president john f. kennedy and we adored ivy kennedy. and i remember very well going to hear, after the university of alabama integrated, going to

hear bobby kennedy in one affairs speech is indeed completely taken with him and been totally devastated when he was assassinated here in los angeles. so the kennedys were huge. another one -- another person i talk about in the book who was the local leader in birmingham, who really brought about consciousness in birmingham, founded the early groups, had to leave to go to cincinnati because he was so much under threat. i think and never really got through compared to the great national leaders for all that he did. andy was a family friend and also a great hero. >> the lady right over here. >> hello, my name is lanier edwards. i like you.

i grew up in florida, which a lot of friends from alabama sayeth not the real south. but i grew up in -- i pretty much grew up in an all-white community most of my life. but i never really experienced a lot of racism until i moved to northern florida, the school of florida and then. and actually once i moved out here -- you talked about letting go and not harboring the resentment. what were some of the things you can encourage the younger kids of today to hold onto and remember to help them to transcend that anger in the present and? because myself i had to learn to let it go, you know, and move past it and not use it as a crutch and as an excuse. >> it's really a question because fortunately my parents parents -- growing up in segregated birmingham in this regard was a bit of an advantage because if you were in a totally

segregated school, teachers are black, students are black. when the teacher said to you, that's just not good enough. so people could be actually fairly tough in terms of insisting on achievement and insisting on excellence without racial overtones that somehow they're being racist. one of the most interesting things that happened when i was at stanford was i suddenly realized that there was a subtle bigotry of low expectations that creeps in when people see black students. and all of a sudden, well, you know, they've had a tough time. or maybe i shouldn't say anything about that. cannot value is related in the book were related to you.

i noticed i went to my first ceremony as provost in 1994. and at stanford in this group of a think 300 phi beta kappa is, there was one black student. i thought, wow this is really odd. and so, i started kind of looking at it and thinking about it. and we formed a little group called partners in academic excellence we have black graduate students to meet with black freshmen interbreed their papers in her introduction, the humanity course. and the black graduate students would say to the black freshmen, how did you get an amnesty per? this isn't an a paper. all bigotry. low expectations. and so by the time the students are getting to really tough classes junior or senior year, they were prepared for tough judgment. and so sometimes racism shows itself in very unexpected ways.

and it shows that self and just not holding that person is quite equal to yourself, but wanted the best for them and wanted to help them and basically patronizing them. i think one of the deepest problems we have in the schools right now is that we aren't accepting enough of every child. and kids read it. they know when you don't expect much of them. and they underperform. and so, one of my answers to kids were feeling bitterness or anger or whatever is put it aside. it's their problem, not your problem. and if you let it become your problem, then you don't think of yourself as a victim. the next thing to do is be agreed. and by the way, the twin brother of a cretin and his entitlement now, you owe me. i don't have to work for it and now you're on a really bad road

to nowhere. and there are plenty of people -- plenty of people who will play that sense of agreement and that sense of the demand and that sense of entitlement and you still won't have a job. and so, i really think our kids have got to find a way to be tough for with people underestimate them. those are the most racist people in the world. >> high, my name is lame and your book talks about you were given every kind of educational opportunity by your parent and you had a very busy childhood where you'd wake up at 4:30 to go ice skating. so whether every time, you know, we just didn't want to get up in the morning to early. and then what was the motivation, and the extraordinary motivation to quit out of bed and do all that for yourself and what it become your

>> condi just said that choice. our parents were pretty good that your parents were the one you wanted to take skating lessons. what you need to want to get up now? is pretty self motivated when it came to skating. unfortunately i was really bad at it. it was the wrong sport. when i pick up a tennis racquet several years later i said to my father, why did you not put a tennis racket in my hand? he said you were the one who wanted to skate. i didn't like getting up at 4:30 in the morning to take you. and so i was very motivated in part because something i did learn from them, it was hard for me. and i actually think i learned more from overcoming something that was hard for me than something that was easy. as a natural pianist. wasn't that hard for me. but i'll tell you a story of intervention in the pianist i. when i was 10 years old -- i've been playing since i was three.

i could read music before i could read. when i was 10 euros i'd wanted to quit. i sipped my mother, i want to quit piano. and she said, you're not old enough or good enough to make that decision. [laughter] and you know, years later when i was playing with yo-yo ma, i was really glad that she didn't let me quit. so part of it was self-motivation. little bit insane you know, you're the one who wanted to do this. and so that was -- and i think connie sees this too, we didn't want to disappoint our parents. we knew how much they were putting into it. and so i just didn't want to disappoint them either. >> thank you for joining us today, both of you. i actually grew up in washington d.c. area, born and raised there, also a graduate of notre dame, undergrad actually. congratulations. go irish. >> she's got a little work to do. immaculata for.

>> my question actually is going to get political. but i'm actually very interested in what you think obama is doing really well. there's a long list, but what you been doing really well. but even more importantly, what you think he should be doing a lot better. >> well, you know, i said when i left government and i feel pretty strongly about it, that when you're in office, it's a whole lot harder than when you're sitting out here. and it's really hard when people are chirping at you from the outside and you think well, why didn't she do that when you're here because it's obviously a lot easier out there. and so, just as president are set coming out, i got frankly i hope the president clinton and others my silent. i disagree with what they're doing. in fact, i know them all well enough that if there's something that i'd like to say, i will say

to bob gates and secretary clinton and others. i think that we are very, very tough. i'm going to make two separate statements here. one is about the presidency in general. what about our politics. i think what they are and i agree they're the smartest most amazing human beings have ever seen. and here later how did we ever elect him? and i've watched it happen over and over and over again. it's the loneliest job in the world. it doesn't get tougher than being president of the united states. i do think that people we elect in that office are we have stood up for the right reasons and are trying to do the right thing. and sometimes i disagree and sometimes i agree. but i'll play something that i think is going on in our

politics quite apart from the administration and that is that what you're saying in this grassroots and i am not one who agrees with everything in a tea party. i mower pro-immigration and more pro-free trade. i would tell you what people are saying and the grassroots movement is the conversation in washington and the conversation not tear the country is not the same. and they are saying it to washington d.c. and i simply think that is a healthy development. it is not at this point. we've lost our confidence in the foster optimism as the peace corps. that is one of the most optimistic people in the face of the earth or trust me, i've been across the face of the earth. we are the most optimistic people on it. but only when we are confident in what we have deficits roaring and when we can't get

joblessness down and when we can't get comprehensive immigration reform so that we're battling each other when our educational system is not delivering, we're not very confident. and i think that that's really what people are. >> by marie firmwide you. i was just wondering, when he was a kid, did you know you were going to be this big when you grew up in how they lot of people? >> thank you for asking that question. >> have a lot of people that you always have the state of mind that you was going to do better in u.s. going to make something out of your life and that u.s. going to aspire black women like me to do more stuff?

>> what is your name again? >> annemarie. >> i have no idea what i was going to end up as secretary of state. no idea. in fact, how old are you? >> sixteen. >> when i was 16 i was going to be a great concert pianist. and i had studied piano from the age of three and i could read music and i was going to be a great concert tns. and then i went to something called the after music festival school, right? and they were prodigies they are who could play from sight, whether it had taken all year to learn. i thought i am about to end up teaching 13-year-olds to murder beethoven and maybe i'm going to play at nordstrom, but i am not playing carnegie hall. that's very obvious. and so, i went home and i had the following conversation with my