Patsy Mink - WikiHQ

Patsy Matsu Mink ( Takemoto; , December 6, 1927 – September 28, 2002) was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii who served in the United States House of Representatives for 24 years as a member of the Democratic Party, initially from 1965 to 1977, and again from 1990 until her death in 2002. She was the first Woman of Color and first Asian-American woman elected to Congress, and is known for her work on legislation advancing women's rights and education.

Mink was a third-generation Japanese American, having been born and raised on the island of Maui. After graduating as valedictorian of the Maui High School class in 1944, she attended the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for two years and subsequently enrolled at the University of Nebraska, where she experienced racism and worked to have segregation policies eliminated. After illness forced her to return to Hawaii to complete her studies there, she applied to 12 medical schools to continue her education but was rejected by all of them. Following a suggestion by her employer, she opted to study law and was accepted at the University of Chicago Law School in 1948. While there, she met and married a graduate student in geology, John Francis Mink. When they graduated in 1951, Patsy was unable to find employment and after the birth of their daughter in 1952, the couple moved to Hawaii.

When she was refused the right to take the bar examination, due to the loss of her Hawaiian territorial residency upon marriage, Mink challenged the statute. Though she won the right to take the test and passed the examination, she could not find public or private employment because she was married and had a child. Mink's father helped her open her own practice in 1953 and around the same time she became a member of the Democratic Party. Hoping to work legislatively to change discriminatory customs through law, she worked as an attorney for the Hawaiian territorial legislature in 1955. The following year, she ran for a seat in the territorial House of Representatives. Winning the race, she became the first Japanese-American woman to serve in the territorial House and two years later, the first woman to serve in the territorial Senate, when she won her campaign for the upper house. In 1960, Mink gained national attention when she spoke in favor of the civil rights platform at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. In 1962 she was elected to the new Hawaii State Senate becoming the first Asian-American woman to be elected and serve in a state legislature in the United States.

In 1964, Mink ran for federal office and won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She served a total of 12 terms (24 years), split between representing Hawaii's at-large congressional district from 1965 to 1977 and second congressional district from 1990 to 2002. While in Congress in the late 1960s, she introduced the first comprehensive initiatives under the Early Childhood Education Act, which included the first federal child-care bill and worked on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. In 1970, she became the first person to oppose a Supreme Court nominee on the basis of discrimination against women. Mink initiated a lawsuit which led to significant changes to presidential authority under the Freedom of Information Act in 1971. In 1972, she co-authored the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, President Nixon signed the Act into law in 1972. She also introduced the Women's Educational Equity Act of 1974, which allocated funds for the promotion of gender equity in schools. The law opened employment and education opportunities for women and opposed gender stereotypes in curricula and textbooks. Without Florida's electoral votes, the election would have been decided by the U.S. House of Representatives, with each state having one vote in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Death

thumb|220px|right|alt=Photograph of an Asian woman in an orange blouse and white blazer|Mink, 2002

On August 30, 2002, Mink was hospitalized in Honolulu's Straub Clinic and Hospital due to complications from chickenpox. Her condition steadily worsened, and on September 28, 2002, she died in Honolulu of viral pneumonia, at age 74. In recognition of the national mourning of her death, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered all flags at military institutions lowered to half staff in her honor. Mink received a national memorial and was honored with a state funeral held on October 4 in the Hawaii State Capitol Rotunda attended by leaders and members of Congress. Women's groups honored Mink by forming a human lei of approximately 900 women who surrounded the tent where Mink's casket stood in the capital atrium, while singing Hawaiian songs. She is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, near the Punchbowl Crater. Mink's death occurred one week after she had won 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

Mink is remembered as a woman who dealt with the personal discrimination she had experienced as a woman and an Asian American by devoting her career to creating public policies to open doors for women and minorities. In June 2022, a portrait of her by Sharon Sprung was unveiled in the U.S. Capitol, where it now hangs.

Documentary films about Mink's life and role in Title IX include the Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority (2008), directed by Kimberlee Bassford and Rise of the Wahine (2014), directed by Dean Kaneshiro. The 2008 film highlighted the challenges Mink overcame and how that fueled her work on legislation to help others. The 2014 film told the story of the University of Hawaii's women's volleyball team's struggle to build a team even after Title IX passed. As the bill was an educational funding law, women's athletic director, Donnis Thompson used it as leverage to expand sporting opportunities at the university in spite of intense opposition. Working together to ensure that lawmakers understood who they were representing, Mink had Thompson bring the team to Washington. Author Judy Tzu-Chen Wu and Mink's daughter, Gwendolyn Mink, co-wrote a biography that released in May 2022 called Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress. It is the first biography detailing Mink's life and in 2023, won the Mary Nickliss Prize in U.S. Women's and/or Gender History.

alt=Picture of the 2024 Patsy Takemoto Mink Women's Quarter|thumb|2024 Patsy Takemoto Mink Women's Quarter

In 2024, the United States Mint honored Mink with the 2024 Patsy Takemoto Mink Quarter, which was the 12th coin released in the American Women Quarter program.

Selected works

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

General and cited sources

Reprinted original text from Mari Matsuda ed. Called from Within: Early Women Lawyers of Hawai'i (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992). pages 251–280.
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External links

Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority, the Documentary, a film by Kimberlee Bassford and Women Make Movies
FBI's Cold War files question Mink's loyalty
Patsy T. Mink papers at the Library of Congress
Patsy T. Mink papers at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections
Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, "Patsy Takemoto Mink blazed the trail for Kamala Harris – not famous white woman Susan B. Anthony", The Conversation (November 18, 2020)