Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Starting Early -- The Rays and the Rices -- Married at Last -- "Johnny, It's a Girl" -- "I Need a Piano!" -- My Parents Were Teachers -- Something in the Water -- School Days -- Summer Respite -- Turning Up the Heat in Birmingham -- 1963 -- Integration? -- Tuscaloosa -- Denver Again -- Leaving the South Behind -- Cancer Intrudes -- Starting Early (Again) -- College Years -- A Change of Direction -- "Rally, Sons (and Daughters) of Notre Dame" -- A New Start -- A Lost Year -- Senator Stanford's Farm -- My Rookie Season -- The Darkest Moment of My Life -- "The Moving Van Is Here" -- Inside the Pentagon -- Back to Stanford -- D.C. Again -- "I Don't Think This Is What Karl Marx Had in Mind" -- Back in California -- Learning Compassion -- Finding a New President for Stanford -- Provost of the University -- Tough Decisions -- The Governor's Campaign -- Florida -- "The Saints Go Marching In".

This is the story of Condoleezza Rice-- her early years growing up in the hostile environment of Birmingham, Alabama; her rise in the ranks at Stanford University to become the university's second-in-command and an expert in Soviet and Eastern European Affairs; and finally, in 2000, her appointment as the first Black woman to serve as Secretary of State.