Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program Blog

July is a wonderful time to honor Norman Yoshio Mineta and his contribution and dedication to our country.

On July 25, 2000, Norman Yoshio Mineta was confirmed as Secretary of Commerce. He is the first Asian Pacific American to be appointed to a cabinet-level post. Six months later, he was confirmed to be President George W. Bush’s new Secretary of Transportation, the first Asian Pacific American to hold that position as well. He is the longest-serving Secretary of Transportation in the Department’s history.

Norman Mineta has have a distinguished political career that began in 1967, when he became the first minority to win a seat on the San Jose City Council in California. In 1971, he was elected as San Jose’s mayor and the first Asian Pacific American mayor of a major U.S. city. After being elected to Congress in 1975, serving as Representative from the Silicon Valley area, he led the push for the Japanese American Reparations bill (H.R. 442), which passed as the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 to redress violations of the civil liberties of Americans incarcerated in internment camps during WWII. Mineta also co-founded the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and served as its first chair. Mineta is also a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.

Sources:
-President’s Statement on Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, White House Office of the Press Secretary, June 23, 2006
-U.S. Department of Transportation
-A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution, National Museum of American History