( CNN ) -- Condoleezza Rice 's personal memoir of her family history hits the book stands Tuesday . In `` Extraordinary , Ordinary People , '' the former U.S. Secretary of State recalls much of her family 's time during the Civil Rights era in Birmingham . Rice has said that she will write a memoir about her eight years in the White House but felt she could not do so until people understood the `` personal and implausible journey '' she had taken from being born in 1950s segregated Alabama to being named the first female African-American to lead the State Department . All of this happened , Rice said , due to her parents , John and Angelena Rice . A guidance counselor/preacher and school teacher respectively , Mr. And Mrs. Rice never made more than $ 60,000 annually , Rice said . Despite being raised in a city resistant to quality education for blacks , Rice 's parents used their meager resources to provide their only child with piano lessons at 3 . She also took French and ballet . She never learned to swim as a child because Birmingham Public Safety official Eugene `` Bull '' Connors forbade blacks and whites from sharing public swimming pools . But Rice 's parents refused to let the racial tensions limit her potential . `` Even if I could not have a hamburger at a Woolworth 's counter , my mom taught me that I could be President of the United States , '' Rice said at an author panel during the 10th annual Book Expo America in May . Rice is a long-time Republican , despite being mentored in international affairs by the Josef Kobel , the father of Democratic Secretary of State , Madeleine Albright , who became the first female Secretary of State , according to Albright 's State Department biography . Rice said her family 's introduction into the GOP resulted from a Jim Crow `` poll test . '' The now illegal practice of requiring black voters to answer questions before being permitted to vote , poll tests were `` the teeth of Jim Crow , '' Rice said . While her mother answered the name of the first U.S. President George Washington correctly and was allowed to vote , her father was asked to identify the number of beans in a jar , she said . Unable to do so , John Rice later learned of a woman poll worker who would allow him to vote if he aligned himself with the GOP . `` And that is how my father became a Republican , '' she said . While they did see Rice to on to graduate from Stanford University , and eventually become a provost there , her parents never lived to see her in the White House . Her mother lost a 15-year-battle with breast cancer in 1985 . Her dad died just before George W. Bush was inaugurated . Still she recalls them showing her a photo of an eight-year-old Condoleezza RIce standing outside the White House where she believes it was grandfather who told her at the time : `` You may be standing out here now , but you will be working in there someday . '' `` Extraordinary , Ordinary People '' is available in hardcover , in e-book format and as an audio book read by Condoleezza Rice herself .
The book recounts Rice 's life story from 1950 's segregation to her appointment as Secretary of State . Rice 's father became a Republican to shake Jim Crow harassment . Condoleezza Rice reads the audio book version herself .