Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink (1927-2002), Pressed for Passage of Title IX
- First woman of color in U.S. Congress
- First Asian-American in Congress
- First woman to represent Hawaii
Patsy Takemoto Mink served two separate stints in the US Congress (1965-1976) and (1990-2002), representing Hawaii’s 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts. As the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, she worked tirelessly for civil rights, women’s rights, economic justice, civil liberties, peace, and the integrity of the democratic process.
Early Life
Mink was born in Hawaii on the island of Maui to second-generation Japanese-Americans. Her father was a civil engineer and her mother a homemaker. Her father, the first Japanese-American to graduate from the University of Hawaii, had experienced discrimination as a civil engineer in Maui. Several times he was passed over for promotions with white males getting the better jobs. After World War II, he resigned and moved the family to Honolulu where he established his own surveying company.
Mink learned campaign strategies and coalition-building as early as high school when she ran successfully for student body president. As a female who was of Japanese descent at a time when American tensions with Japan were high (World War II), Mink had to overcome prejudice and persuade the students that she would work hard for their interests.
She began college at the University of Hawaii. She transferred to the University of Nebraska and was surprised to encountered segregation—all non-white students lived in separate dormitory housing. Mink organized a coalition of students, parents, staff and administrators and fought successfully against this policy.
Mink intended to get a medical degree but soon found that out of 20 schools she investigated in 1948 none would accept women. She decided to gain the tools to fight discrimination by goint to law school. She was accepted to the University of Chicago, and while living there she met and married John Mink, a hydrologist. They eventually moved to Honolulu.
Virginia Hall was born in 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland to a well-to-do family. She attended Radcliffe and Barnard Colleges, completing part of her education in Europe. She was fluent in French and German and found jobs at several American embassies, and she became intent on getting a job with the U.S. State Department so she could continue her career in foreign service.
Created a product that launched in international empire
