Elaine Crooks did it on her own. John Sutherland (local black figure from 19th century Kingston, Ontario; first black lawyer in Upper Canada) did it on his own. MLK did it on his own.

The kinds of adversity they faced make Rice's problems look like nothing; she comes from a lot of money.

My personal feeling about Condaleeza Rice is that she has done a terrible job as NSA; however, that doesn't particularly set her apart from the rest of the crew up there. My personal feeling is that there's a lot of self-dealing going on in the WH, that a lot of foreign policy is being driven by same, and imho the current crew is certainly the worst bunch in my time, and perhaps for all time; they make that circumvention of the US constitution called Iran-Contra look like a cakewalk.