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LONDON, Oct. 15 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced Saturday that Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, had accepted her invitation to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday in her home state, Alabama, for "an important diplomatic weekend," as an aide described it.
They will perform the pregame coin flip when the University of Alabama football team faces Tennessee in Tuscaloosa, and then stay to watch the game, said Jim Wilkinson, her senior adviser. Their other activities will include a visit to Brunetta C. Hill Elementary School in Birmingham, which Ms. Rice attended.
Ms. Rice and Mr. Straw are friends, but she explained that the unusual trip signaled a new policy to invite foreign ministers to see parts of America besides Washington and New York. Secretaries of state seldom take official trips within the United States, but Ms. Rice said guiding foreign officials on such visits would help give them a greater appreciation and understanding of the nation.
Events are scheduled almost back-to-back throughout the three-day visit, Mr. Wilkinson told reporters. Mr. Straw and Ms. Rice will speak at the University of Alabama, and they are to visit volunteers working on Hurricane Katrina relief.
Ms. Rice said she invited Mr. Straw to Alabama because he had shown a keen interest in the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's. Mr. Wilkinson said the two would help dedicate a new statue in Birmingham to honor the four young girls killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. One was a friend of Ms. Rice's.
On Sunday morning, they are to attend services at Westminster Presbyterian Church, which, aides said, was founded by Ms. Rice's grandfather and which her family attended. Joining them on this trip will be David Manning, the British ambassador to the United States, other British and American officials, and a large press corps.
They will perform the pregame coin flip when the University of Alabama football team faces Tennessee in Tuscaloosa, and then stay to watch the game, said Jim Wilkinson, her senior adviser. Their other activities will include a visit to Brunetta C. Hill Elementary School in Birmingham, which Ms. Rice attended.
Ms. Rice and Mr. Straw are friends, but she explained that the unusual trip signaled a new policy to invite foreign ministers to see parts of America besides Washington and New York. Secretaries of state seldom take official trips within the United States, but Ms. Rice said guiding foreign officials on such visits would help give them a greater appreciation and understanding of the nation.
Events are scheduled almost back-to-back throughout the three-day visit, Mr. Wilkinson told reporters. Mr. Straw and Ms. Rice will speak at the University of Alabama, and they are to visit volunteers working on Hurricane Katrina relief.
Ms. Rice said she invited Mr. Straw to Alabama because he had shown a keen interest in the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's. Mr. Wilkinson said the two would help dedicate a new statue in Birmingham to honor the four young girls killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. One was a friend of Ms. Rice's.
On Sunday morning, they are to attend services at Westminster Presbyterian Church, which, aides said, was founded by Ms. Rice's grandfather and which her family attended. Joining them on this trip will be David Manning, the British ambassador to the United States, other British and American officials, and a large press corps.
