| Patsy Mink | |
|---|---|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii's 2nd district |
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| In office September 22, 1990 – September 28, 2002 |
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| Preceded by | Daniel Akaka |
| Succeeded by | Ed Case |
| In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1977 |
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| Preceded by | New district |
| Succeeded by | Daniel Akaka |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii's At Large district |
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| In office January 3, 1965 – January 3, 1971 |
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| Preceded by | Thomas Gill |
| Succeeded by | District eliminated[1] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 6, 1927 Maui, Hawaii |
| Died | September 28, 2002 (aged 74) Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Political party | Democratic |
Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink (Japanese: 竹本まつ, December 6, 1927–September 28, 2002) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii. Mink was a third generation Japanese American and member of the Democratic Party. She also was the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
Mink served in the U.S. House of Representatives for a total of 12 terms, representing Hawaii's first and second congressional districts. While in Congress she was noted for authoring the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act. Mink won her last election after her death in 2002.
Mink was the first woman of color and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress. She was also the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii, and became the first Asian American to seek the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in the 1972 election, where she stood in the Oregon primary as an anti-war candidate.[2]
In recognition of her contributions towards equal rights in the country, Congress named the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act the "Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act".
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Mink's parents were second-generation Japanese Americans or Nisei. She was a Sansei, or third-generation descendant of emigrants from Japan.[3] Her father, Suematsu Takemoto, was a civil engineer. Her mother, Mitama Tateyama, was a homemaker.[4][5] Takemoto graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1922. Takemoto was the first Japanese American to graduate from the University of Hawaii.[6]
For several years, he was the only Japanese American civil engineer working in Maui.[6] Takemoto was passed over and not promoted several times during his career; instead the positions offered to white Americans.[6] He resigned his local position in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II, and moved to Honolulu with his family. Takemoto established his own land surveying company in Honolulu.[6]
Her maternal grandparents were Gojiro Tateyama and his wife Tsuru. Gojiro was born in the Empire of Japan during the 19th century. He arrived in the Territory of Hawaii late in the century, and was employed as a worker on a sugar plantation. He later moved to Maui, and was initially employed as a worker for the East Maui Irrigation Company. Subsequently, Gojiro was employed as a store manager and filling station employee. He also delivered mail throughout the backcountry of Maui.
The Tateyamas lived in a shack by Waikamoi Stream. They had eleven children. William Pogue, Gojiro's employer at the Irrigation Company, arranged to have the Tateyama female children educated at the Maunaolu Seminary, a boarding school for Christian girls located in the town of Makawao.[6]
Mink was born in Paia on the island of Maui. She was raised by her parents on Maui.
She attended Maui High School and in her Junior year, Mink won her first election to become student body president. Her election to the position came with great challenges. She developed approaches to confront these challenges, and she drew on these experiences when later serving in the territorial legislature and in Congress. For example, the month before the election, Honolulu was attacked by Japan. As a consequence, most of the student body was uncomfortable with anything that was Japanese-oriented. Therefore, in order to get elected, Mink had to overcome these hard feelings. Mink also had to cope with being the only female who had ever showed ambition for student office in the school's history, something that was unheard of at the time. Mink orchestrated a strategy of impressing the various cliques on campus, including the popular football team. Her coalition-building strategy worked and she won a close election. In 1944, Mink graduated from high school as class valedictorian.
Mink moved to Honolulu where she attended the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. She then transferred to the University of Nebraska where she once again faced discrimination. The university had a long-standing racial segregation policy whereby students of color were forced to live in different dormitories from the white students. This annoyed Mink, and she organized and created a coalition of students, parents, administrators, employees, alumni, sponsoring businesses and corporations. Mink and her coalition successfully lobbied to end the university's segregation policies.
After her successful war against segregation at the University of Nebraska, Mink moved back to Honolulu to prepare for medical school. She received bachelor's degrees in zoology and chemistry from the University of Hawaii. However in 1948, none of the twenty medical schools to which she applied would accept women. A disappointed Mink decided the best way to force medical schools to accept women would be through the judicial process. Mink decided to go to law school.
Mink applied to the University of Chicago Law School. Unusually, the school had admitted women from its inception in 1902, and Mink attended law school with several other women. Mink obtained her juris doctor degree in 1951.
While at law school, Mink met hydrologist John Mink (1924–2005), who was to become her husband and lifelong partner.
Newly married, Mink settled in Honolulu, where she began practicing law. In 1952, Patsy gave birth to her daughter Gwendolyn, who later became a prominent author and educator on labor and women's issues.
In 1956 as the Territory of Hawaii debated statehood, Mink was elected to the territorial legislature representing her district in the House of Representatives. In 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the Union.
In 1965, Mink became the first female minority to join the ranks of Congress. She served six consecutive terms. During the 1972 Presidential race, Mink ran in the Oregon primary as an anti-Vietnam War candidate.
Mink took what she learned in high school and built some of the most influential coalitions in Congress. Her most important coalition was one to support the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, which she wrote, prohibiting gender discrimination by federally funded institutions, an outgrowth of the adversities Mink faced through college.
Mink also introduced the first comprehensive Early Childhood Education Act and authored the Women's Educational Equity Act. All of these laws written by Mink were declared landmark laws by Congress as they advanced equal rights in America beyond what could be imagined during the time. Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act was renamed by President George W. Bush on 29 October 2002 to become the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.
From 1975 to 1977, during the 94th Congress, Mink was elected to a position in the House Democratic leadership, as Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus.[7]
In 1976, Mink gave up her seat in Congress to run for a vacancy in the United States Senate. After she lost the primary election for the Senate seat to Spark Matsunaga, President of the United States Jimmy Carter appointed Mink as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. She served under Cyrus Vance and Edmund Muskie.
After her service in the Carter Administration, Mink settled in Honolulu, where she was elected to the Honolulu City Council. Her peers on the council eventually elected her Chairwoman, and she often butted heads with the controversial Mayor of Honolulu Frank Fasi.
In 1990, Mink won back a seat in Congress, serving alongside Neil Abercrombie who represented the First Congressional District of Hawaii.
On August 30, 2002, Mink was hospitalized in Honolulu's Straub Clinic and Hospital with complications from chickenpox. Her condition steadily worsened, and on September 28, 2002, Mink died in Honolulu of viral pneumonia, at age 74. Hawaii and the nation mourned as President George W. Bush ordered all flags to be lowered to half staff in honor of her contributions towards the equal rights of Americans. Mink received a national memorial and was honored with a state funeral in the Hawaii State Capitol Rotunda attended by leaders and members of Congress. She is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Mink's death occurred one week after the 2002 primary election, too late for her name to be removed from the general election ballot. On November 5, 2002, Mink was posthumously re-elected to Congress. Her vacant seat was filled by Ed Case after a special election on January 4, 2003.
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Thomas Gill |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii's At-large congressional district January 3, 1965– January 2, 1971 |
Succeeded by District eliminated |
| Preceded by New district |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii's 2nd congressional district January 3, 1971–January 2, 1977 |
Succeeded by Daniel Akaka |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by Frederick Irving |
Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs March 28, 1977 – May 1, 1978 |
Succeeded by Thomas R. Pickering |
| Preceded by Daniel Akaka |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii's 2nd congressional district September 22, 1990–September 28, 2002 |
Succeeded by Ed Case |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Leonor Sullivan |
Secretary of Democratic Caucus of the United States House of Representatives 1975–1977 |
Succeeded by Shirley Chisholm |
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