Patsy Mink

Patsy Mink
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Hawaii's 2nd district
In office
September 22, 1990 – September 28, 2002
Preceded by Daniel Akaka
Succeeded by Ed Case
In office
January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1977
Preceded by Constituency established
Succeeded by Daniel Akaka
Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs
In office
March 28, 1977 – May 1, 1978
President Jimmy Carter
Preceded by Frederick Irving
Succeeded by Tom Pickering
Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus
In office
January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1977
Leader Carl Albert
Preceded by Leonor Sullivan
Succeeded by Shirley Chisholm
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Hawaii's At-large district
In office
January 3, 1965 – September 28, 1971
Preceded by Thomas Gill
Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born Patsy Matsu Takemoto
(1927-12-06)December 6, 1927
Paia, Territory of Hawaii, U.S.
Died September 28, 2002(2002-09-28) (aged 74)
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) John Mink
Children Gwendolyn
Alma mater Wilson College
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
University of Hawaii, Manoa
University of Chicago
Religion Protestantism

Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink (竹本 まつ Takemoto Matsu, 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 co-authoring the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act.[1]

Mink was the first woman not of European ancestry 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] From 1978 to 1981 Mink served as the president of Americans for Democratic Action.

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.

Family background

Mink's parents were second-generation Japanese Americans or Nisei. She was a Sansei, or third-generation descendant of Japanese emigrants.[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, Mink's father Takemoto was the only Japanese American civil engineer working in Maui.[6] He was passed over and not promoted several times during his career and instead, the positions were 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]

Mink's 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 on a sugarcane 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]

Early years and education

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 spent one semester (Sept. 1946-Jan. 1947) enrolled at Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA. 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 lived 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.

Family and early career

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 soon after, 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.

As the Territory of Hawaii debated statehood in 1956, Mink was elected to the Hawaii Territorial Legislature representing her district in the territorial House of Representatives. She then served in the territorial Senate. In 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the Union. From 1962-1964, Mink served in the Hawaii State Senate.

At the 1960 Democratic National Convention, a speech by Hawaii delegate Mink persuaded two-thirds of the party to keep their progressive stance on the civil rights issue.[7]

U.S. Representative

Patsy Mink during her first career in Congress
Mink with Lyndon Johnson after his trip to Hawaii for a conference on the Vietnam War, February 1966.

In 1965, Mink became the first female of an ethnic 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, of which she was one of the principal authors and sponsors, prohibiting gender discrimination by federally funded institutions, an outgrowth of the adversities Mink faced through college.[1]

In 1970, Mink became the first Democratic woman to deliver a State of the Union response.[8]

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; she co-authored and sponsored the Act while in the House. In 1975 she was the chief sponsor of HR 9924, granting $5 million in total tax-payer contributions ($22 million in 2016 dollars) for both the state and National Women's Conference[9] which President Gerald Ford signed into law.[10]

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.[11]

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State

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 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.

Return to U.S. Representative

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.

Death

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; President George W. Bush ordered all flags lowered to half staff in honor of her contributions toward 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. In 2007, Central Oahu Regional Park on Oahu was renamed "Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park" in her honor.

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.

Legacy

In 2002 Congress renamed the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act (which Mink coauthored) to the "Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act."[12]

Documentary films about Mink's life and role in Title IX include: Rise of the Wahine, directed by Dean Kaneshiro[13] and Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority (2008), directed by Kimberlee Bassford.[14]

She received a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama on November 24, 2014.[15][16]

Selected bibliography

Notes

  1. 1 2 Gootman, Elissa (30 September 2002). "Patsy Mink, Veteran Hawaii Congresswoman, Dies at 74". New York Times. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  2. ↑ The Democratic Party | Patsy Takemoto Mink (1927 – 2002)
  3. ↑ Nomura, Gail M. (1998). "Japanese American Women," in The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History (Mankiller, Barbara Smith, ed.), pp. 288-290., p. 288, at Google Books
  4. ↑ Judith A. Leavitt, "American Women Managers and Administrators: A Selective Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-century Leaders in Business, Education, and Government" (1985), page 183
  5. ↑ Dorothy C. L. Cordova, Stephen Fugita and Hyung-chan Kim, "Distinguished Asian Americans: A Biographical Dictionary" (1999), page 246
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Matusda, Mari J. (1992). Called from Within: Early Women Lawyers of Hawaii. United States: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-1448-9.
  7. ↑ "Democratic National Political Conventions 1832–2008" (PDF). Library of Congress. 2008. pp. 19–20. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Joni Ernst will be the 16th woman to respond to the State of the Union: Female politicians have been fighting the same sexist attacks for decades.". Slate Magazine.
  9. ↑ http://wiwomensnetwork.org/resources/publications/houstonarticles
  10. ↑ http://www.ilind.net/oldkine_images/woman_alive/WA-Jan1976.pdf
  11. ↑ "Women Elected to Party Leadership Positions". Women in Congress. U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved 2012-06-06.
  12. ↑ "Title IX". Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  13. ↑ "Rise of the Wahine Documentary Film".
  14. ↑ "WOMEN MAKE MOVIES - Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority". Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  15. ↑ "President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom". The White House. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  16. ↑ "Obama awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to 18". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 24 November 2014.

References

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
Thomas Gill		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Hawaii's At-large congressional district
1965–1971 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Hawaii's 2nd congressional district
1971–1977 		Succeeded by
Daniel Akaka
Preceded by
Daniel Akaka		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Hawaii's 2nd congressional district
1990–2002 		Succeeded by
Ed Case
Preceded by
Norman Mineta		 Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
1995–1997 		Succeeded by
Robert Underwood
Party political offices
Preceded by
Leonor Sullivan		 Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus
1975–1977 		Succeeded by
Shirley Chisholm
Political offices
Preceded by
Frederick Irving		 Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs
1977–1978 		Succeeded by
Tom Pickering
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