Patsy Takemoto Mink Post Office - Paia, HI - People-Named Places on Waymarking.com

THE PERSON:
Patsy Mink was born in Paia, on December 6, 1927, as a third-generation (sansei) Japanese. Here grandparents were among the many thousands of Japanese who emigrated to Hawaii to work in the sugar cane plantations. Paia was built around one of the largest sugar mills on the island.

Patsy was a pioneer, forging new roads for women and minorities. Months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she won her first election as student body president at Maui High School - unheard of for a woman, or for a Japanese at that time. She graduated valedictorian of her class.

She faced discrimination when she later transferred from the University of Hawaii to the University of Nebraska where students were racially segregated. She led campaigns that ended this policy at the school.

Then, when she applied to over twenty medical schools in 1948, none would accept a woman. She then turned to law school, as a way better to change policies, and graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1951.

She went on to distinguish herself as a 12-term U.S. Representative, noted for authoring the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, which now bears her name. She was the first minority women to be elected to the U.S. Congress.

She died on September 28, 2002, just months before the next election, which she actually won, posthumously.

RESOURCES:

Wikipedia: Patsy Mink
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
RiseUp.com
National Women's History Museum
Maui Blog - Georgina M. Hunter
Patsy Takemoto Mink Education Foundation

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