71 Facts About Patsy Mink

Patsy Matsu Mink was an American attorney and politician from the US state of Hawaii.

Patsy Mink 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.

Patsy Mink was the first woman of color and the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress, and is known for her work on legislation advancing women's rights and education.

When she was refused the right to take the bar examination, due to the loss of her Hawaiian territorial residency upon marriage, Patsy Mink challenged the statute.

Patsy Mink's father helped her open her own practice in 1953 and around the same time she became a member of the Democratic Party.

In 1960, Patsy Mink gained national attention when she spoke in favor of the civil rights platform at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

In 1964, Patsy Mink ran for federal office and won a seat in the US House of Representatives.

Patsy Mink served a total of 12 terms, split between representing Hawaii's at-large congressional district from 1965 to 1977 and second congressional district from 1990 to 2002.

Patsy Mink initiated a lawsuit which led to significant changes to presidential authority under the Freedom of Information Act in 1971.

Patsy Mink was the first East Asian-American woman to seek the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.

Patsy Mink ran in the 1972 election, entering the Oregon primary as an anti-war candidate.

Patsy Mink was the federal Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs from 1977 to 1979.

From 1980 to 1982, Patsy Mink served as the president of Americans for Democratic Action and then returned to Honolulu, where she was elected to the Honolulu City Council, which she chaired until 1985.

Patsy Mink Matsu Takemoto was born on December 6,1927, at the sugar plantation camp, Hamakua Poko, near Paia, on the island of Maui.

Patsy Mink was a sansei, or third-generation descendant of Japanese emigrants.

Patsy Mink's mother, Mitama Tateyama, was a homemaker, and the daughter of Gojiro Tateyama and Tsuru Wakashige.

Patsy Mink later moved to Maui, where he was initially employed as a worker for the East Maui Irrigation Company.

Patsy Mink resigned his local position in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II, and moved to Honolulu with his family, where he established his own land surveying company.

Patsy Mink entered Maui High School one year before Honolulu was attacked by Japan.

Patsy Mink was the first girl to serve as president of the student body and graduated as class valedictorian in 1944.

Patsy Mink was elected president of the Unaffiliated Students of the University of Nebraska, a "separate" student government for non-white students who were prevented from joining fraternities, sororities, and regular dormitories.

Patsy Mink began applying to medical schools, but none of the dozen schools to which she applied would accept her because she was a woman, especially as they were receiving large numbers of applications from returning veterans.

Patsy Mink briefly worked as a typist at Hickam Air Force Base and then went to work at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

Against her parents' wishes, she and Patsy Mink married in January 1951, six months after meeting.

Unable to find work as a married, female, Asian-American attorney, Patsy Mink returned to her student job at the University of Chicago Law School library while her husband found work immediately with the United States Steel Corporation.

Patsy Mink's firm took cases in criminal and family law, which other firms typically avoided.

Patsy Mink began to be active in politics and founded the Everyman Organization, a group that served as the hub of the Young Democrats club on Oahu.

Patsy Mink was elected "chairman of the territory-wide Young Democrats", which according to Esther K Arinaga and Renee E Ojiri was "a group that would wield a remarkable influence over Hawaiian politics for several decades".

In 1954, Mink worked on the congressional campaign of John A Burns, though he lost the race.

In 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the Union and Patsy Mink ran in the Democratic primary for the state's at-large US congressional seat.

From 1962 to 1964, Patsy Mink served in the Hawaii State Senate.

Patsy Mink authored a bill in 1957 to grant "equal pay for equal work", regardless of gender, and was a staunch supporter of improving education, supporting legislation to increase per capita spending to better provide for children.

In 1960, Patsy Mink became vice-president of the National Young Democratic Clubs of America and worked on the Democratic National Convention's Platform Committee drafting team.

Patsy Mink urged that equal opportunity and equal protection be afforded to all Americans.

Patsy Mink worked on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and bills promoting adult education, Asian studies, career guidance programs, and vocational education.

In 1970, Patsy Mink became the first Democratic woman to deliver a State of the Union response and only the second woman to respond to the address.

Phillips had been denied a position because she was a woman with children and Patsy Mink's objection highlighted, for the first time in an evaluation of a court nominee, the inequalities faced by working women.

Patsy Mink sued the Environmental Protection Agency in 1971, to obtain copies of documents that were being withheld by Nixon's office with regard to nuclear testing on Amchitka Island.

Frustrated by the roll-backs by the Nixon administration of civil liberties and the continuance of the Vietnam War, Patsy Mink entered the presidential race in 1971 hoping to become the Democratic Party's nominee.

Patsy Mink was the first Asian-American woman to run for president.

Patsy Mink's actions drew strong criticism, fostering a campaign by Democrats in her home state to oppose her next term in Congress.

Patsy Mink co-authored and advocated for the passage of Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, prohibiting gender discrimination by federally funded institutions of higher education.

Patsy Mink introduced the Women's Educational Equity Act of 1974, which allocated funds for the promotion of gender equity in schools.

In 1975, Patsy Mink attended the World Conference on Women held in Mexico City from mid-June to early July.

In 1976, learning that she had been given the experimental drug diethylstilbestrol, during her pregnancy, which unwittingly placed both her and her daughter at risk of developing cancer, Patsy Mink brought a class action lawsuit against Eli Lilly and Company and the University of Chicago.

Patsy Mink introduced the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, which was enacted in 1977.

In 1976, Patsy 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.

Patsy Mink worked on environmental issues such as deep sea mining, toxic waste, and whale protection, holding the post from March 1977 to May 1978.

Patsy Mink resigned from the Carter Administration in 1980, accepting a position as president of the Americans for Democratic Action in Washington, DC She was the first woman to head the national organization and served three consecutive one-year terms.

Patsy Mink was regularly on opposite sides to the Republican Mayor of Honolulu Frank Fasi, who was elected in 1984, though she remained on the council until 1987.

When she left the city council, Patsy Mink began working for The Public Reporter, a watchdog committee that monitored and published reports on voting records and pending legislation.

Patsy Mink led the Hawaii Coalition on Global Affairs, a group which sponsored public lectures and workshops on international issues.

In 1990, Patsy Mink was elected to complete the remaining term of her successor in the House, Daniel Akaka.

Patsy Mink was elected to a full term six weeks later, and subsequently was reelected six times.

Patsy Mink co-sponsored the Gender Equity Act of 1993, pressed for universal health care, and introduced a bill to protect reproductive decisions as an individual right.

Patsy Mink worked on legislation regarding displaced homemakers, minimum wage increases, occupational safety, pay inequality, and violence against women.

Patsy Mink served as co-chair of the House Democratic Women's Caucus.

In 1996, Patsy Mink opposed the welfare-reform legislation proposed by the Republican-majority House and supported by the Clinton administration.

Patsy Mink authored the Family Stability and Work Act as an alternative welfare reform measure and repeatedly, though mostly unsuccessfully, lobbied for increased federal safety nets for children and families living in impoverished conditions.

Patsy Mink opposed legislation that would limit liability for product injuries and work place discrimination and objected to the ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Patsy Mink was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act and staunchly opposed the creation of the United States Department of Homeland Security, fearing that it might avert civil liberties and result in another occurrence of policies like the internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II.

Women's groups honored Patsy Mink by forming a human lei of around 900 women who surrounded the tent where Patsy Mink's casket stood in the capital atrium and sang Hawaiian songs.

Patsy Mink was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, near the Punchbowl Crater.

Patsy 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, Patsy Mink was posthumously re-elected to Congress.

Patsy 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 2002 Congress renamed the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, which Mink had co-authored, as the "Patsy T Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act".

Patsy Mink's papers were donated in 2002 and are housed in the Library of Congress.

Patsy Mink was honored posthumously with the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama on November 24,2014.

The 2008 film highlighted the challenges Patsy Mink overcame and how that fueled her work on legislation to help others.

Patsy Mink will be an honoree on an American Women quarter in 2024.