NARNIA

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Cuba

Constitution Council of State President (List) Emperor Dom First Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura Second Vice President Abelardo Colomé Ibarra Cabinet (Council of Ministers) Premier (List) Raúl Castro National Assembly of People's Power President Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Supreme Court Political parties Communist Party of Cuba First Secretary Raúl Castro Elections: 2003, 2008 Provinces Municipalities Committees for the Defense of the Revolution Opposition Human rights Foreign relations

Other countries · Atlas Politics portal view talk edit

The 1940 Constitution of Cuba, was implemented in 1940, during the presidency of Federico Laredo Brú. It was primarily influenced by the collectivist ideas that inspired the Cuban Revolution of 1933. Widely considered one of the most "progressive" constitutions in existence at the time, it provided for land reform, public education, minimum wage and other leftist ideas. It consisted of 286 articles in 19 sections and took six months to write.

The Constitution of 1940, (a) substantiated voting as a right, obligation and function of the people; (b) endorsed the previously established form of government, specifically republican, democratic and representative; (c) confirmed individual rights and privileges including private property rights; and (d) introduced the notion of collective rights.

Under the Constitution of 1940, the separation between the three branches of government remained, but with obvious distinctions. Specifically,(a) the role of the prime minister was introduced; (b) the executive branch converted to semi-parliamentary form, where half of its ministers could also be congressmen; and (c) Congress’ form was changed to one representative in the house to every 35,000 citizens or greater fraction of 17,500, and nine senators per province.

The Constitution of 1940 ratified the power and separation of the judiciary. Specifically, the judicial branch remained autonomous and empowered to nominate judges and magistrates. Like the Constitution of 1901, and the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court justices were appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate. In addition, the Constitution of 1940 instituted a Court of Constitutional and Social Guarantees (the “Constitutional Court”) under the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction. The Constitutional Court was empowered to hear labor and constitutional law matters, and determine remedies for violations thereof.

Under the Constitution of 1940, (a) provincial government was terminated; the provincial councils, however, endured, but were now composed of the mayors of various municipalities incorporated into each province; (b) the governor’s power to suspend mayors ceased, while the municipalities gained the right to tax locally; (c) public expenses and budgeting at all levels became subject to a ministerial officer under the auspices of a newly created Court of Public Administration; and (d) a Court of Public Works was instituted.

The constitutional amendment clause was very strictly enforced in the Constitution of 1940. Title XIX, article 285 (a)-(b) of the Constitution of 1940, required a constitutional convention to modify the language of the Constitution. Congress, however, was authorized to make minor reforms to the document; provided, however, that the following requirements were adhered to: (a) quorum (joint session); (b) two thirds vote of the total number of legislators; and (c)“doble consideración” or consideration of the proposed amendments at two consecutive legislative sessions.

Additionally, the Constitution of 1940 could also be reformed via a referendum clause. The most notable difference between the Constitution of 1901 and the Constitution of 1940 was the addition of constitutional protection for issues relating to family, culture, property and labor. Without constitutional antecedents and expertise in the area of protection of social rights, the drafters of the Constitution of 1940 sought guidance from Second Spanish Republic's “Constitution of 1931” and Germany’s “Weimar Constitution.” The Constitution of 1940 was only in effect for 12 years.

Following a coup d'état by Fulgencio Batista in 1952, parts of this constitution were suspended. Prior to the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro and the other revolutionaries, through the Manifiesto of the Sierra,^[1] claimed that their chief goal was to reinstate the Constitution of 1940. However, the revolutionaries reneged on their promise and abrogated the Constitution of 1940 once in power. It was replaced only in 1976 by the current Constitution of Cuba, which formally defined the country as a single-party state under the Communist Party of Cuba, as well as replacing semi-presidentialism with full presidentialism, abolishing the office of Prime Minister of Cuba.

[edit] Signatories^[2]

• Carlos Márquez Sterling y Guiral, President of the Constitutional Convention
• Alberto Boada Miquel, Secretary the Constitutional Convention
• Emilio Núñez Portuondo, Secretary the Constitutional Convention
• José Manuel Cortina García, President of the Comisión Coordinadora de la Convención Constituyente
• Salvador Acosta Casares
• Francisco Alomí y Álvarez de la Campa
• Rafael Álvarez González
• José R. Andréu Martínez
• Manuel Benítez González
• Antonio Bravo Acosta
• Antonio Bravo Correoso
• Fernando del Busto Martínez
• Juan Cabrera Hernández
• Miguel Calvo Tarafa
• Ramiro Capablanca Graupera
• José Manuel Casanova Diviño
• César Casas Rodríguez
• Romárico Cordero Garcés
• Ramón Corona García
• Felipe Correoso y del Risco
• Miguel Covula Llaguno
• Pelayo Cuervo Navarro
• Eduardo Rene Chibás Rivas
• Francisco Dellundé Mustelier
• Mario E. Díhigo
• Arturo Don Rodríguez
• Manuel Dorta Duque
• Nicolás Duarte Cajides
• Mariano Esteva Lora
• José A. Fernández de Castro
• Orestes Ferrara Marino
• Simeón Ferro Martínez
• Manuel Fuego Suárez
• Adriano Galano Sánchez
• Salvador García Agüero
• Félix García Rodríguez
• Quintín Jorge Vernot
• Ramón Granda Fernández
• Ramón Grau San Martín
• Rafael Guas Iclán
• Alieda Hernández de la Barca
• Alfredo Hornedo Suárez
• Francisco Ichiazo Macias
• Felipe Jay Raoulx
• Emilio A. Laurent Dubet
• Amaranto López Negrón
• Jorge Mañach Robato
• Juan Marinello Vidaurreta
• Antonio Martínez Fraga
• Joaquín Martínez Sáenz
• Jorge A. Mendigutía Silveira
• Manuel Mesa Medina
• Joaquín Meso Quesada
• Gustavo Moreno Lastres
• Eusebio Mujal Barniol
• Delio Núñez Mesa
• Emilio Ochoa Ochoa
• Manuel A. Orizondo Caraballé
• Manuel Parrado Rodés
• Juan B. Pons Jané
• Francisco José Prieto Llera
• Carlos Prío Socarrás
• Santiago Rey Perna
• Mario Robau Cartaya
• Blas Roca Calderio
• Primitivo Rodríguez Rodríguez
• Esperanza Sánchez Mastrapa
• Alberto Silva Quiñones
• Miguel A. Suárez Fernández
• César Vilar Aguilar
• Fernando del Villar de los Ríos
• María Esther Villoch Leyva

References[link]

See also[link]

Cuba portal

• Constitution of Cuba

References[link]

• Spanish Wikipedia
• The 1940 Constitution of Cuba in Spanish
• The 1940 Constitution of Cuba in English

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2011)

NARNIA

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Cuba

Constitution Council of State President (List) Emperor Dom First Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura Second Vice President Abelardo Colomé Ibarra Cabinet (Council of Ministers) Premier (List) Raúl Castro National Assembly of People's Power President Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Supreme Court Political parties Communist Party of Cuba First Secretary Raúl Castro Elections: 2003, 2008 Provinces Municipalities Committees for the Defense of the Revolution Opposition Human rights Foreign relations

Other countries · Atlas Politics portal view talk edit

Since attaining its independence from Spain, Cuba has had five constitutions. The current constitution was drafted in 1976 and has since been amended.

1901 Constitution[link]

The 1901 Constitution was Cuba's first as an independent state. It contained the Platt Amendment, which allowed the United States to intervene in Cuba's affairs to protect its independence.^[1]

The 1901 Constitution was indeed a carbon copy of the Constitution written at La Yara in 1896, and met with fierce opposition from its principal author Major General José Braulio Alemán who strongly opposed the Platt Amendment.^{[citation needed]}

It was Alemán's contention that Cuba should be and remain "Libre y Soberana", Free and Sovereign; and that the Platt Amendment just traded Spain's strong arm tactics on the island for the yoke of American imperialism.^{[citation needed]}

1934 Constitution[link]

Cuba's second constitution came into effect in 1934. This document was intended to be a provisional constitution.

1940 Constitution[link]

In 1940, during the de facto presidency of Fulgencio Batista, a constitution was created. It provided for land reform, public education, minimum wage and other progressive ideas. Some of its provisions were not implemented in practice. Following a coup d'etat by Fulgencio Batista in 1952, parts of this constitution were suspended.

Prior to the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro and the other revolutionaries, through several documents, such as "History will absolve me" (1952), the "Manifiesto de la Sierra",^[2][3] etc. claimed that their chief goal was to reinstate the Constitution of 1940^{[citation needed]}, a promise which was never honored after their victory.

The last surviving signer of the 1940 Constitution, Emilio Ochoa, died in Miami, Florida, on 27 June 2007.^[4]

1976 Constitution[link]

After 16 years of extra-constitutional rule (1959–1975), used to consolidate its power, the revolutionary government of Cuba sought to institutionalize the revolution. The Socialist Constitution of 1976 was adopted by referendum on February 15, in which it was approved by 97.7% of voters.^[5] The document came into effect on February 24, 1976.

Original provisions[link]

This constitution called for a centralized control of the market, and committed the State to providing its citizens with access to free education and health care. It also required that parents, regardless of their own beliefs, inculcate their children with socialist values. The state had the power to regulate the activities of religious institutions on the island, and the private ownership of media companies was forbidden.

Later amendments[link]

In the late 1980s, as the Eastern Bloc collapsed, the laws of Cuba changed again to respond to the new conditions of the Special Period. The constitutional amendments of 1992 granted foreign corporations a limited right to own property on the island if they took part in joint ventures with the government. It also provided for non-discrimination based on religious belief (i.e., allowing persons with religious belief to join the Communist Party of Cuba).

Poster urging citizens to vote to make the socialist system permanent and irrevocable by amending the constitution

In 2002, the Cuban Constitution was again amended to stipulate that its socialistic system was permanent and irrevocable.^[6]

See also[link]

Cuba portal

• Cuban law
• Constitution
• Constitutional law
• Constitutional economics
• Constitutionalism

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Constitution of Cuba

• Constitution of Cuba 1992 English language version
• Constitutions of Cuba Original Spanish language Text, by the Political Database of the Americas.
• CONSTITUCIÓN DE LA REPUBLICA DE CUBA Original Spanish language Text of 2002, by the Portal Cuba.
• REPUBLIC OF CUBA, 1940 Constitution in English translation from the original legal text.
• The Cuban Constitution of 1976, revised 1992

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David Ferriero
Archivist of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office November 6, 2009
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Adrienne Thomas (Acting)
Personal details
Born	(1945-12-31) December 31, 1945 (age 66) Beverly, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	Northeastern University Simmons College

David Sean Ferriero (pronounced /ˈfɛrioʊ/;^[1] born December 31, 1945) is a librarian, library administrator, and the 10th Archivist of the United States. He was Director of the New York Public Library;^[2] and before that, he was the University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke University.^[3] Prior to his Duke position, he worked for 31 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology library.^[4] Ferriero is the first librarian to serve as Archivist of the United States.^[5]

Education and Personal Life[link]

Ferriero grew up in Beverly, Massachusetts, and graduated from Beverly High School.

He earned a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in English Literature from Northeastern University.^[6]

His education was interrupted by service in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He served as a Navy hospital corpsman assigned to a Marine unit in Danang, Vietnam, and on a hospital ship, the USS Sanctuary, in Vietnamese waters.^[7] After the war, Ferriero approached his studies differently. Ferriero believes that he was "much more focused at that point."^[6]

Following his military service, Ferriero earned an additional Master's Degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons College.^[8]

Marriage and family[link]

Ferriero married Gail Zimmermann, the daughter of MIT Professor Emeritus Henry Zimmermann.^[9] She has developed an independent career in broadcasting as Associate General Manager of UNC-TV in Durham, North Carolina.^[10] Before moving to North Carolina, she worked with WGBH-TV in Boston.^[7]

Career[link]

MIT Libraries[link]

Ferriero was Associate Director of Public Services at MIT Libraries.^[11] His MIT library career spanned 31 years.^[12]

Duke University Library[link]

Ferriero was the Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke University from 1996 through 2004.^[13] Ferriero was the first Duke university librarian to address the members of the university's Board of Trustees in person.^[14] He was actively involved in the evolution of North Carolina's Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN).^[15]

New York Public Library[link]

Ferriero was the Andrew W. Mellon Director and Chief Executive of the Research Libraries at the New York Public Library (NYPL) from 2004.^[16] In 2007 his role expanded with additional responsibilities as director of New York Public Library's (NYPL) Branch Libraries.^[2] He was responsible for the management and operations of NYPL's Research Libraries since 2005^[3] and the Branch Libraries since 2007.^[2] He presided over a major restructuring, which was accompanied by elimination of some positions and the creation of new ones.^[17] Ferriero argued that transformation was imperative as NYPL adapted to the profound cultural and societal developments affecting the future of libraries.^[18] His initiatives at NYPL engaged the nascent disciplines of digital asset management.^[19]

Ferriero prioritized staff recruitment, retention, training, development, and compensation;^[20] and he made it a point to try to visit the main reading room every day, assessing the varied needs of NYPL patrons.^[21]

Cataloging[link]

Ferriero was the NYPL's Partner Representative^[22] in OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), which with its member libraries co-operatively produces and maintains WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog.^[23] During Ferriero's tenure, the library stopped using the unique "Billings classification system" for its reference books in the Rose Reading Room (main reading room) (the classification system is named for John Shaw Billings, the former NYPL librarian who devised and introduced it in the nineteenth century).^[24][25]

Google digitization partnership[link]

The NYPL joined the Google Books Library Project during Ferriero's tenure.^[26][27] Google and major international libraries have agreed to making collections of public domain books available for scanning to be offered to the public online, without charge.^[27][28]

National Archives and Records Administration[link]

Ferriero speaks at Wikipedia 10 in Washington, D.C. in 2011.

On July 28, 2009, President Obama nominated him to be 10th Archivist of the United States.^[29]

An early October confirmation hearing was scheduled by a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. According to the subcommittee chairman, Senator Thomas Carper of Delaware, Ferriero's quick confirmation by the Senate was never in doubt.^[30]

Ferriero used the public occasion to express his view that the National Archives is at a "defining moment with regard to our existing electronic records, social media communications, and emerging technologies being used throughout government offices." He also noted "issues of collection security, the future of the Presidential Library system, backlogs in processing, staff job satisfaction, stakeholder relationships, preservation and storage needs."^[31]

He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 6, 2009;^[32] and he was sworn in to his new office on November 13, 2009.^[33]

President Obama appointed Ferriero to simultaneously head the new National Declassification Center, which "has been given four years to go through 400 million pages of federal documents that remain top secret. They date to World War I."^[34]

Affiliations[link]

• PLUS Coalition (Picture Licensing Universal System), Board of Directors.^[35]
• Association of Research Libraries (ARL).^[35]
• Council on Library and Information Resources/Association of American Publishers, Joint Working Group on Scholarly Communication.^[35]
• Early English Books Online (EEBO), editorial advisory board.^[35]
• Center for Research Libraries.^[35]
• Research Libraries Group.^[35]
• Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (ReCAP), Board of Directors

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Hagel, John and John Seely Brown. (2005). The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction and Dynamic Specialization. Cambridge: Harvard Business Press. 10-ISBN 1-59139-720-0/13-ISBN 978-1-59139-720-5; OCLC 57641452
• Kovaleski, Serge F. "New York Library Officials’ Pay? Shhh." New York Times. November 19, 2006.
• Riding, Alan. "France Detects a Cultural Threat in Google" New York Times. April 11, 2005.
• US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing, October 1, 2009: Nomination of David S. Ferriero to be Archivist of the United States National Archives and Records Administration

External links[link]

• AOTUS: Collector in Chief, David Ferriero's Blog as Archivist of the United States
• Biography of David Ferriero, by the National Archives and Records Administration
• State of the Archives address, by David S. Ferriero
• "Meet the new Archivist of the United States", video by The Washington Post
• Victim Impact Statement, re: theft of NYPL maps, 2006.

Martha Griffiths
58th Lieutenant Governor of Michigan
In office January 1, 1983 – December 31, 1991
Governor	James J. Blanchard
Preceded by	James H. Brickley
Succeeded by	Connie Binsfield
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 17th district
In office January 3, 1955 – December 31, 1974
Preceded by	Charles G. Oakman
Succeeded by	William M. Brodhead
Member of the Michigan House of Representatives from the xxth district
In office January 1, 1949 – December 31, 1953
Personal details
Born	January 29, 1912 Pierce City, Missouri
Died	April 22, 2003 Armada, Michigan
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Hicks George Griffiths
Alma mater	University of Missouri

Martha Wright Griffiths (January 29, 1912 – April 22, 2003) was an American lawyer and judge before being elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1954. Griffiths was the first woman to serve on the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means and the first woman elected to the United States Congress from Michigan as a member of the Democratic Party. She was also the person most responsible for including the prohibition of sex discrimination under Title VII in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1982, Griffiths was also the first female elected as Lieutenant Governor of Michigan. Matilda Dodge Wilson was appointed the first female Lieutenant Governor of Michigan in 1939.

Martha Edna Wright was born in Pierce City, Missouri. She attended public schools, and went on to graduate with a B.A. from the University of Missouri in 1934. She choose to continue her education by studying law and graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1940. She married Hicks George Griffiths (b. 1910), a lawyer and a judge as well as chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party from 1949–1950.

She worked as a lawyer in private practice then in the legal department of the American Automobile Insurance Co. in Detroit from 1941–1942 and then as the Ordnance District contract negotiator from 1942-1946. She was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives, serving from 1949 to 1953. In 1953, she was appointed as recorder and judge of the Recorder's Court in Detroit and sat as judge from 1953–1954—the first woman to do so.

In 1954, Griffiths was elected as a Democrat from Michigan's 17th congressional district to the 84th Congress and was subsequently re-elected to the nine following Congresses, serving from January 3, 1955 to December 31, 1974 in the U.S. House. She sat as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention in 1956 as well as in 1968. She was not a candidate for re-election to the 94th Congress in 1974. During her time in Congress, Griffiths sponsored the Equal Rights Amendment, one of only a few proposed amendments to pass in Congress and be sent to the states for ratification.

After her congressional service, Griffiths returned to the practice of law and then served as the 57th Lieutenant Governor of Michigan from 1983 to 1991 on the ticket of Governor James Blanchard. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1983 and to the National Women's Hall of Fame a decade later in 1993. She retired to her home in Armada, Michigan, where she lived until her death in 2003.

References[link]

• Martha Griffiths at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• The Political Graveyard

Patsy Mink
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii's 2nd district
In office September 22, 1990 – September 28, 2002
Preceded by	Daniel Akaka
Succeeded by	Ed Case
In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1977
Preceded by	New district
Succeeded by	Daniel Akaka
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii's At Large district
In office January 3, 1965 – January 3, 1971
Preceded by	Thomas Gill
Succeeded by	District eliminated[1]
Personal details
Born	Patsy Matsu Takemoto (1927-12-06)December 6, 1927 Maui, Hawaii
Died	September 28, 2002(2002-09-28) (aged 74) Honolulu, Hawaii
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	John Mink
Children	Gwendolyn Mink
Religion	Protestant

Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink (Japanese: 竹本まつ, December 6, 1927–September 28, 2002) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii. Mink was a third generation Japanese American and member of the Democratic Party. She also was the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

Mink served in the U.S. House of Representatives for a total of 12 terms, representing Hawaii's first and second congressional districts. While in Congress she was noted for authoring the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act. Mink won her last election after her death in 2002.

Mink was the first woman of color and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress. She was also the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii, and became the first Asian American to seek the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in the 1972 election, where she stood in the Oregon primary as an anti-war candidate.^[2]

In recognition of her contributions towards equal rights in the country, Congress named the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act the "Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act".

Family background[link]

Mink's parents were second-generation Japanese Americans or Nisei. She was a Sansei, or third-generation descendant of emigrants from Japan.^[3] Her father, Suematsu Takemoto, was a civil engineer. Her mother, Mitama Tateyama, was a homemaker.^[4][5] Takemoto graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1922. Takemoto was the first Japanese American to graduate from the University of Hawaii.^[6]

For several years, he was the only Japanese American civil engineer working in Maui.^[6] Takemoto was passed over and not promoted several times during his career; instead the positions offered to white Americans.^[6] He resigned his local position in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II, and moved to Honolulu with his family. Takemoto established his own land surveying company in Honolulu.^[6]

Her maternal grandparents were Gojiro Tateyama and his wife Tsuru. Gojiro was born in the Empire of Japan during the 19th century. He arrived in the Territory of Hawaii late in the century, and was employed as a worker on a sugar plantation. He later moved to Maui, and was initially employed as a worker for the East Maui Irrigation Company. Subsequently, Gojiro was employed as a store manager and filling station employee. He also delivered mail throughout the backcountry of Maui.

The Tateyamas lived in a shack by Waikamoi Stream. They had eleven children. William Pogue, Gojiro's employer at the Irrigation Company, arranged to have the Tateyama female children educated at the Maunaolu Seminary, a boarding school for Christian girls located in the town of Makawao.^[6]

Early years and education[link]

Mink was born in Paia on the island of Maui. She was raised by her parents on Maui.

She attended Maui High School and in her Junior year, Mink won her first election to become student body president. Her election to the position came with great challenges. She developed approaches to confront these challenges, and she drew on these experiences when later serving in the territorial legislature and in Congress. For example, the month before the election, Honolulu was attacked by Japan. As a consequence, most of the student body was uncomfortable with anything that was Japanese-oriented. Therefore, in order to get elected, Mink had to overcome these hard feelings. Mink also had to cope with being the only female who had ever showed ambition for student office in the school's history, something that was unheard of at the time. Mink orchestrated a strategy of impressing the various cliques on campus, including the popular football team. Her coalition-building strategy worked and she won a close election. In 1944, Mink graduated from high school as class valedictorian.

Mink moved to Honolulu where she attended the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. She spent one semester (Sept. 1946-Jan. 1947) enrolled at Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA. She then transferred to the University of Nebraska where she once again faced discrimination. The university had a long-standing racial segregation policy whereby students of color were forced to live in different dormitories from the white students. This annoyed Mink, and she organized and created a coalition of students, parents, administrators, employees, alumni, sponsoring businesses and corporations. Mink and her coalition successfully lobbied to end the university's segregation policies.

After her successful war against segregation at the University of Nebraska, Mink moved back to Honolulu to prepare for medical school. She received bachelor's degrees in zoology and chemistry from the University of Hawaii. However in 1948, none of the twenty medical schools to which she applied would accept women. A disappointed Mink decided the best way to force medical schools to accept women would be through the judicial process. Mink decided to go to law school.

Mink applied to the University of Chicago Law School. Unusually, the school had admitted women from its inception in 1902, and Mink attended law school with several other women. Mink obtained her juris doctor degree in 1951.

Family and early career[link]

While at law school, Mink met hydrologist John Mink (1924–2005), who was to become her husband and lifelong partner.

Newly married, Mink settled in Honolulu, where she began practicing law. In 1952, Patsy gave birth to her daughter Gwendolyn, who later became a prominent author and educator on labor and women's issues.

In 1956 as the Territory of Hawaii debated statehood, Mink was elected to the Hawaii Territorial Legislature representing her district in the territorial House of Representatives. Mink then served in the territorial Senate. In 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the Union. in 1962-1964, Mink served in the Hawaii State Senate.

U.S. Representative[link]

Patsy Mink during her first career in Congress

Mink with Lyndon Johnson after his trip to Hawaii for a conference on the Vietnam War, February 1966.

In 1965, Mink became the first female minority to join the ranks of Congress. She served six consecutive terms. During the 1972 Presidential race, Mink ran in the Oregon primary as an anti-Vietnam War candidate.

Mink took what she learned in high school and built some of the most influential coalitions in Congress. Her most important coalition was one to support the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, which she wrote, prohibiting gender discrimination by federally funded institutions, an outgrowth of the adversities Mink faced through college.

Mink also introduced the first comprehensive Early Childhood Education Act and authored the Women's Educational Equity Act. All of these laws written by Mink were declared landmark laws by Congress as they advanced equal rights in America beyond what could be imagined during the time. Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act was renamed by President George W. Bush on 29 October 2002 to become the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

From 1975 to 1977, during the 94th Congress, Mink was elected to a position in the House Democratic leadership, as Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus.^[7]

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State[link]

In 1976, Mink gave up her seat in Congress to run for a vacancy in the United States Senate. After she lost the primary election for the Senate seat to Spark Matsunaga, President of the United States Jimmy Carter appointed Mink as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. She served under Cyrus Vance and Edmund Muskie.

Return to U.S. Representative[link]

After her service in the Carter Administration, Mink settled in Honolulu, where she was elected to the Honolulu City Council. Her peers on the council eventually elected her Chairwoman, and she often butted heads with the controversial Mayor of Honolulu Frank Fasi.

In 1990, Mink won back a seat in Congress, serving alongside Neil Abercrombie who represented the First Congressional District of Hawaii.

Death[link]

On August 30, 2002, Mink was hospitalized in Honolulu's Straub Clinic and Hospital with complications from chickenpox. Her condition steadily worsened, and on September 28, 2002, Mink died in Honolulu of viral pneumonia, at age 74. Hawaii and the nation mourned as President George W. Bush ordered all flags to be lowered to half staff in honor of her contributions towards the equal rights of Americans. Mink received a national memorial and was honored with a state funeral in the Hawaii State Capitol Rotunda attended by leaders and members of Congress. She is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2007, Central Oahu Regional Park on Oahu was renamed "Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park" in her honor.

Mink's death occurred one week after 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 by Ed Case after a special election on January 4, 2003.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Nomura, Gail M. (1998). "Japanese American Women," in The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History (Mankiller, Barbara Smith, ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 10-ISBN 0618001824/13-ISBN 9780618001828; OCLC 43338598

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Patsy Mink at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Her profile in "Distinguished Asian Americans"
• Her profile in "American Women Administrators"
• Her profile in "Called from Within"
• Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority, a documentary by Kimberlee Bassford
• All Politics Profile on CNN
• Honolulu Advertiser Special Edition, September 29, 2002
• Honolulu Advertiser Special Edition, October 5, 2002
• National Organization for Women Memorial of Patsy Mink
• National Women's History Project Biography of Patsy Mink

v t e Members of the United States House of Representatives from Hawaii One At-large seat (1959–1963) At-large seat Inouye Two At-large seats (1963–1971) At-large seat A Gill · Mink At-large seat B Matsunaga Districts (1971–present) 1st district Matsunaga · Heftel · Abercrombie · Saiki · Abercrombie · Djou · Hanabusa 2nd district Mink · Akaka · Mink · Case · Hirono