Norman Mineta, born in 1931, American politician, secretary of commerce (2000-2001) under President Bill Clinton, and secretary of transportation (2001-2006) under President George W. Bush. He was the first Asian American to serve in a presidential cabinet.

Norman Yoshio Mineta was born in San Jose, California. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 during World War II, Mineta was relocated with his family to an internment camp for Japanese Americans in Wyoming. In 1953 he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He then joined the United States Army and served in the Korean War (1950-1953) as an intelligence officer. After leaving the army in 1956, Mineta worked for his family’s insurance agency. He served on the San Jose City Council from 1967 to 1971, when he was elected mayor of San Jose. In 1974 he ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives; he won the election and served in the House from 1975 until he resigned in 1995. In the House, Mineta worked to pass the Civil Liberties Act of 1988; under this act the U.S. government apologized to Japanese Americans for their internment and paid each surviving internee $20,000. Mineta was the chairman of the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation from 1993 to 1994. After leaving the House, Mineta became a vice president for the Lockheed Martin Corporation, an aerospace and defense company. In July 2000 Mineta joined the cabinet of President Bill Clinton as head of the Department of Commerce. In 2001 Republican president-elect George W. Bush appointed Mineta, a Democrat, to administer the Department of Transportation. At the time of his appointment, Mineta was the only Democrat in Bush’s cabinet.