Patsy Mink (1927 – 2002) made her mark on the world through her advocacy and support of her native Hawaii. She was one of the first national representatives of the newly-formed state, and ultimately served as a US Congressperson for the state for 24 years.
However, Hawaiian statehood didn’t occur until Mink was 32 years old. Her journey to the representation of her people was not a smooth ride. Instead, she had to contend with several different struggles and challenges – not least the prejudices laid upon women and Asian-Americans during her lifetime.
Like most honorees of the Mint’s American Women Quarters Program, Patsy Mink accomplished several key firsts during her lifetime. So, let’s discuss the quiet passion that drove her to stand up for the underserved her entire life.
Patsy Matsu Takemoto was born on one of Maui’s sugar plantations on December 6, 1927. She was a third-generation Japanese-American.
Her father, Suematsu, was a civil engineer who was a bit of a pioneer himself. He was the first Japanese-American to graduate with a civil engineering degree from the University of Hawaii and one of the only Japanese-American civil engineers active in Maui before the Second World War.
Patsy Takemoto excelled in school, and entered Maui High School in 1940. Unfortunately, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor generated quite a bit of hostility for Japanese Americans in Hawaii. Her father was investigated intensively, and both she and her (unnamed) sibling suffered quite a bit of discrimination.
In a testament to her personality, however, she shook off the “bad PR” of Pearl Harbor to become the student body president of Maui High School. She also graduated as its valedictorian in 1944.
She then began her baccalaureate work at the University of Hawaii, where she studied zoology and chemistry in preparation for a career as a doctor. She spent two years there, then transferred to Wilson College and the University of Nebraska to continue her studies.
Her time at Nebraska was not a happy one, as she was segregated on the basis of her minority status. Enraged, Takemoto rallied students, faculty members, and administrators to revise the university’s discriminatory policy.
Unfortunately, life threw her a curveball. A major thyroid condition forced her to return to Hawaii to receive surgical treatment and the aid of her family. Thus, she completed her coursework at the University of Hawaii in 1948, graduating with a double major in her two chosen disciplines.
Naturally, she applied to medical school. However, the combination of an onslaught of potential students returning from war and, frankly, the fact that medical schools were…hesitant to admit a woman meant that her applications to at least 10 medical schools were all rejected.
So, Takemoto switched gears, and applied to law school. Ultimately, she was accepted by the University of Chicago Law School.
There, she met her future husband, John Mink, who was a geology student at the time. After their graduations in 1951, the two attempted to make a go of things in Chicago. However, between the tough job market and the birth of their daughter, Gwendolyn, the couple elected to move to Hawaii.
Working years
Initially, Patsy Mink was unable to take the state bar exam due to a technicality related to her marriage. As is her pattern, she challenged the existing law, passed the test, and gained access to the bar.
However, the Hawaiian legal community did not care for Mink’s disruption, her interracial marriage, or her status as a parent. As a result, she was unable to find work as an attorney after receiving her license to practice.
So, with some assistance from her husband’s father, she opened her own law practice in 1953. She began accepting cases that larger, more established firms refused to take – like divorces, adoptions, and other family law cases. In doing so, she became the first Japanese-American attorney to practice in Hawaii.
The discrimination she’d faced her entire life burned inside of her, however. She founded the Oahu Young Democrats in 1954 and began increasing her activity with the Democratic Party, which she perceived to be more focused on her primary issues, like discrimination and civil rights.
The next year, Mink began work as an attorney for the Hawaii territorial legislature. Then, she ran successfully for terms in both the territorial House and territorial Senate to finish out the 1950s.
Statehood
Mink’s career and life shot into the spotlight thanks to a much larger event. In 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state to join the United States of America.
Mink, who was already active in territorial politics, immediately transitioned into running for public office within the new state framework. Though she was initially unsuccessful for national positions, her public profile grew after a 1960 speech on civil rights at the Democratic National Convention.
As a result, Mink became the first Asian-American to serve in a state legislature in 1962. She was elected to the new Hawaii Senate.
After two years, she finally made the leap onto the big stage. Patsy Matsu Mink won election for a seat in the US House of Representatives in 1964. Unsurprisingly, that was the first time an Asian-American woman had done so – there had been three Asian-American representatives before, but never a female.
Mink would go on to serve in the at-large position for six terms. During her time between 1965 and 1977, she became an ardent supporter of initiatives to provide equality and civil rights to minority groups in the nation.
She authored many bedrock initiatives of the Early Childhood Education Act and contributed meaningfully to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act during this period. These two groups of laws created many of the programs still active in public schooling today, such as Head Start, and provided federal funding for children from birth until their high school graduation. The laws also included provisions to ensure that all children, regardless of race, were afforded the same level of funding.
In 1970, Mink became the first congressperson to object to a Supreme Court nominee due to gender discrimination. Her opposition to Judge George Carswell’s nomination on the basis of his prior discriminatory rulings against women and people of color led to the eventual nomination and confirmation of Judge Harry Blackmun instead.
Mink was also one of the primary authors of Title IX, the landmark law that attempted to level the playing field for girls athletics. Modern girls sports programs exist entirely thanks to Title IX, and indirectly, due to Patsy Mink.
Mink even became one of the first Asian-American women to run for President. She entered the Oregon primary in 1972 on a platform decrying the ongoing Vietnam War.
Later years
Patsy Mink left Congress in 1977 to become an assistant secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter. After her term ended in 1979, she returned to Hawaii and remained active in its politics. Notably, she served on the Honolulu City Council and was its chair until her retirement in 1985.
Mink was reelected to Congress in 1990. As before, she would be elected for six more terms, bringing her overall total time in the US House of Representatives to 24 years. During this tenure, she cosponsored the DREAM Act and was an ardent critic of the newly-created Department of Homeland Security.
However, she contracted chickenpox in August 2002, and she was hospitalized to treat the condition. Unfortunately, her condition did not improve, and she passed away on September 28, 2002. She was 74.
Patsy Mink was accorded the honor of having all national flags lowered to half-mast, as befitting her many years of public service. She received both a national funeral and lay in state in the Hawaii State Rotunda for her state ceremony.
Interestingly, her passage occurred only a week after she’d been reelected to her seat in the House for the 2002 election. Thus, she began her seventh session posthumously, and the vacancy did not fill until the next year.
Patsy Matsu Mink set many notable firsts thanks to her pioneering representation in both state and national legislatures. She is also remembered for her involvement in many key pieces of legislation over the years.
Shortly after her death, Mink was commemorated by becoming the namesake of her most significant achievement during her time as a Congresswoman. Title IX was officially renamed The Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act to honor her contribution to it.
Mink was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2003. The government also renamed her home post office in Maui as the Patsy Takemoto Mink Post Office Building, and in 2007, she became the namesake of a park in Oahu.
Mink posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. The award came from President Barack Obama, himself a pioneer within the American political space.
Mink has also been featured in two documentary films. One of them, Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority, is essentially a biography of her early years. The other, Rise of the Wahine, focuses on the struggles of the University of Hawaii women’s volleyball team due to bureaucratic resistance to Title IX.
Needless to say, her inclusion on a quarter makes a lot of sense. So, let’s take a look at the actual coin itself.
The US Mint released the Patsy Mink quarter as the second release in 2024 of its American Women Quarters Program. Overall, the quarter is the twelfth in the series.
Like all quarters these days, the front of the Patsy Mink quarter features an image of President George Washington. The first president has been the face of the 25-cent piece since 1932.
The tribute to Mink is on the reverse of the quarter. The images on the coin pay homage both to her Hawaiian heritage and her most notable achievement – the creation of Title IX.
Accordingly, Mink is portrayed as an overlaid figure to the US Capitol Building. She is wearing a lei around her neck, smiling broadly, and is holding a page inscribed as “TITLE IX.”
Her name floats above the image in script. Below, the phrase “Equal Opportunity in Education” appears – which was the driving passion that Mink’s legislation and advocacy sought to ensure.