Women of Influence: Patsy Mink
Who was Patsy Mink? She was the first woman of color and the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress, and also the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii. Mink was the first East Asian-American woman to seek the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. She had a remarkable career in Congress, and she was ahead of her time when it came to combatting sexism and racism in politics. Yet many people don't know who she was.
She was born Patsy Matsu Takemoto on December 6, 1927 on a sugar plantation camp, Hāmākua Poko, near Paia, on the island of Maui. She was a third-generation descendant of Japanese emigrants. Their family, which had 11 children, lived in a shack by the Waikamoi Stream. Her mother was a homemaker and her father Her father was a civil engineer who had graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1922, the first Japanese American to graduate from the University of Hawaii with a degree in civil engineering. He worked at the sugar plantation in Maui and was passed over for promotion to chief engineer several times. He resigned from that job in 1945 after the war and moved to Honolulu with his family, where he established his own land surveying company.
Patsy Mink began Maui High School one year before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Despite being of Japanese ancestry, she ran for and won her first election, becoming student body president in her senior year. She was the first female to serve as president of the student body and graduated as class valedictorian in 1944. After high school she attended the University of Hawaii at Mānoa for two years and subsequently enrolled at the University of Nebraska. There she was experienced severe racism and worked to have segregation policies eliminated. Illness forced her to return to Hawaii, where applied to 12 medical schools to continue her education but was rejected by all of them. At the suggestion by her employer, decided to study law and was accepted at the University of Chicago Law School in 1948. While at university, she met and married a graduate student named John Francis Mink. When they graduated in 1951, Patsy Mink was unable to find employment and after the birth of their daughter in 1952, the couple moved to Hawaii.
There Patsy Mink was refused the right to take the bar examination, due to the loss of her Hawaiian territorial residency upon marriage. She challenged the statute and won the right to take write the bar exam which she passed, But she could not find employment as a lawyer because she was married and had a child. Her father-in-law helped her open her own practice in 1953 and around the same time she joined the Democratic Party. She subsequently got a job working for the Hawaiian territorial legislature in 1955. The following year, she ran for a seat in the territorial House of Representatives and won, becoming the first Japanese-American woman to serve in the territorial House. Two years later she became the first woman to serve in the territorial Senate.
In 1960, Mink gained national attention when she spoke in favor of the civil rights platform at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. She ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964 and won, making hers the first woman of color and the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress, and also the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii. Her career in Congress was long and distinguished. She served a total of 12 terms (24 years), split between representing Hawaii's at-large congressional district from 1965–77 and second congressional district from 1990–2002.
The photo above shows Mink with other female members of Congress in 1965. Seated are Senator Maurine Neuberger of Oregon; Representative Frances Bolton of Ohio; Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. Standing in the photo are Representatives Florence Dwyer of New Jersey; Martha Griffiths of Michigan; Edith Green of Oregon; Patsy Mink of Hawaii; Leonor Sullivan of Missouri; Julia Hansen of Washington; Edna Kelly of New York; and Charlotte Reid of Illinois.
While in Congress, Mink 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, Nixon's Supreme Court nominee George Harrold Carswell, on the basis of discrimination against women. Carswell's nomination was unsuccessful. That year Mink became the first Democratic woman to deliver a State of the Union response and only the second woman to respond to the address.
Mink began a lawsuit which led to significant changes to presidential authority under the Freedom of Information Act in 1971. She was also active in the field of education reform and in 1972, she co-authored the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, later renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in 2002.
In 1971 she announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party's nomination for President. She campaigned against restrictions by the Nixon administration on civil liberties and against the Vietnam War. She was the first Asian-American woman to run for president. Hawaii did not have a presidential primary, but she placed her name appeared on the Oregon Primary ballot for 1972, running as an anti-war candidate. During her campaign, she flew to Paris in April of 1972 along with Bella Abzug, U.S. Representative of New York, to press for the resumption of peace talks. There the two met with Nguyễn Thị Bình, foreign minister for North Vietnam, as well as representatives for the South Vietnamese and United States governments. She was criticized for her actions, causing Democrats in her home state to oppose her next term in Congress. In May, her poor showing in the Oregon primary caused her to withdraw from the race on May 24, 1972.
In 1976, Mink gave up her seat in Congress to run for a vacancy in the United States Senate created by the retirement of Senator Hiram Fong. She lost the primary election for the Senate seat to Hawaii's other U.S. Representative, Spark Matsunaga. President Jimmy Carter appointed Mink as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. She worked on environmental issues such as deep sea mining, toxic waste, and whale protection, holding the post from March 1977 to May 1978 and remained in the State department until near the end of Carter's term. From 1980 to 1982, Mink served as the president of Americans for Democratic Action and returned to Honolulu, where she was elected to the Honolulu City Council, which she chaired until 1985.
In 1990, she was again elected to the U.S. House, serving until her death in 2002. During her second six terms in office, she continued to work on legislation of importance to women, children, immigrants, and minorities. She also opposed the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In May 1994, Mink and Representative Norman Mineta of California co-founded the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus for which she became chair in 1995, serving until 1997. She also served as co-chair of the House Democratic Women's Caucus.
On August 30, 2002, Mink was hospitalized in Honolulu due to complications from chickenpox. Her condition steadily worsened, and on September 28, 2002, she died in Honolulu from viral pneumonia, at age 74. She was honored with a state funeral held on October 4 in the Hawaii State Capitol Rotunda attended by leaders and members of Congress. She was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, near the Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu. Her 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 after a special election on January 4, 2003.
She was born Patsy Matsu Takemoto on December 6, 1927 on a sugar plantation camp, Hāmākua Poko, near Paia, on the island of Maui. She was a third-generation descendant of Japanese emigrants. Their family, which had 11 children, lived in a shack by the Waikamoi Stream. Her mother was a homemaker and her father Her father was a civil engineer who had graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1922, the first Japanese American to graduate from the University of Hawaii with a degree in civil engineering. He worked at the sugar plantation in Maui and was passed over for promotion to chief engineer several times. He resigned from that job in 1945 after the war and moved to Honolulu with his family, where he established his own land surveying company.
Patsy Mink began Maui High School one year before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Despite being of Japanese ancestry, she ran for and won her first election, becoming student body president in her senior year. She was the first female to serve as president of the student body and graduated as class valedictorian in 1944. After high school she attended the University of Hawaii at Mānoa for two years and subsequently enrolled at the University of Nebraska. There she was experienced severe racism and worked to have segregation policies eliminated. Illness forced her to return to Hawaii, where applied to 12 medical schools to continue her education but was rejected by all of them. At the suggestion by her employer, decided to study law and was accepted at the University of Chicago Law School in 1948. While at university, she met and married a graduate student named John Francis Mink. When they graduated in 1951, Patsy Mink was unable to find employment and after the birth of their daughter in 1952, the couple moved to Hawaii.
There Patsy Mink was refused the right to take the bar examination, due to the loss of her Hawaiian territorial residency upon marriage. She challenged the statute and won the right to take write the bar exam which she passed, But she could not find employment as a lawyer because she was married and had a child. Her father-in-law helped her open her own practice in 1953 and around the same time she joined the Democratic Party. She subsequently got a job working for the Hawaiian territorial legislature in 1955. The following year, she ran for a seat in the territorial House of Representatives and won, becoming the first Japanese-American woman to serve in the territorial House. Two years later she became the first woman to serve in the territorial Senate.
In 1960, Mink gained national attention when she spoke in favor of the civil rights platform at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. She ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964 and won, making hers the first woman of color and the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress, and also the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii. Her career in Congress was long and distinguished. She served a total of 12 terms (24 years), split between representing Hawaii's at-large congressional district from 1965–77 and second congressional district from 1990–2002.
The photo above shows Mink with other female members of Congress in 1965. Seated are Senator Maurine Neuberger of Oregon; Representative Frances Bolton of Ohio; Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. Standing in the photo are Representatives Florence Dwyer of New Jersey; Martha Griffiths of Michigan; Edith Green of Oregon; Patsy Mink of Hawaii; Leonor Sullivan of Missouri; Julia Hansen of Washington; Edna Kelly of New York; and Charlotte Reid of Illinois.
While in Congress, Mink 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, Nixon's Supreme Court nominee George Harrold Carswell, on the basis of discrimination against women. Carswell's nomination was unsuccessful. That year Mink became the first Democratic woman to deliver a State of the Union response and only the second woman to respond to the address.
Mink began a lawsuit which led to significant changes to presidential authority under the Freedom of Information Act in 1971. She was also active in the field of education reform and in 1972, she co-authored the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, later renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in 2002.
In 1971 she announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party's nomination for President. She campaigned against restrictions by the Nixon administration on civil liberties and against the Vietnam War. She was the first Asian-American woman to run for president. Hawaii did not have a presidential primary, but she placed her name appeared on the Oregon Primary ballot for 1972, running as an anti-war candidate. During her campaign, she flew to Paris in April of 1972 along with Bella Abzug, U.S. Representative of New York, to press for the resumption of peace talks. There the two met with Nguyễn Thị Bình, foreign minister for North Vietnam, as well as representatives for the South Vietnamese and United States governments. She was criticized for her actions, causing Democrats in her home state to oppose her next term in Congress. In May, her poor showing in the Oregon primary caused her to withdraw from the race on May 24, 1972.
In 1976, Mink gave up her seat in Congress to run for a vacancy in the United States Senate created by the retirement of Senator Hiram Fong. She lost the primary election for the Senate seat to Hawaii's other U.S. Representative, Spark Matsunaga. President Jimmy Carter appointed Mink as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. She worked on environmental issues such as deep sea mining, toxic waste, and whale protection, holding the post from March 1977 to May 1978 and remained in the State department until near the end of Carter's term. From 1980 to 1982, Mink served as the president of Americans for Democratic Action and returned to Honolulu, where she was elected to the Honolulu City Council, which she chaired until 1985.
In 1990, she was again elected to the U.S. House, serving until her death in 2002. During her second six terms in office, she continued to work on legislation of importance to women, children, immigrants, and minorities. She also opposed the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In May 1994, Mink and Representative Norman Mineta of California co-founded the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus for which she became chair in 1995, serving until 1997. She also served as co-chair of the House Democratic Women's Caucus.
On August 30, 2002, Mink was hospitalized in Honolulu due to complications from chickenpox. Her condition steadily worsened, and on September 28, 2002, she died in Honolulu from viral pneumonia, at age 74. She was honored with a state funeral held on October 4 in the Hawaii State Capitol Rotunda attended by leaders and members of Congress. She was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, near the Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu. Her 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 after a special election on January 4, 2003.