The Gay Eroticism Gay Eroticism blogJapanese American National Museum (JANM) will present the inaugural Norman Y. Mineta Distinguished Lecture with guest speaker Mitch Landrieu, former mayor of New Orleans, at 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 26, at JANM’s Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy (Democracy Center).
The talk launches the Norman Y. Mineta Distinguished Lecture Series, a signature series of the Democracy Center that focuses on the leadership values and principles inspired by Mineta, including his commitment to public service, social justice, and to strengthening U.S.-Japan relations. Tickets to the lecture are free and open to the public. Reservations are required and are available at http://janm.org/democracy.
Mineta served on JANM’s Board of Governors from 1988 to 1995 and was the chair from 2010 to 2015. A trustee since 1996, he was the chair of the Board of Trustees from 2015 until his passing in May 2022.
He and his family were forcibly removed from their home in San Jose and incarcerated along with 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry for the duration of World War II. The family was initially held at the Santa Anita temporary detention center in Los Angeles, and then at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming.
Mineta represented his hometown of San Jose in the House of Representatives for over 20 years. The first Asian American appointed to a presidential Cabinet, he was named secretary of commerce under President Bill Clinton in 2000 and was named secretary of transportation by President George W. Bush in 2001. He was recognized with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award, in 2006. In 2012 he was awarded JANM’s Distinguished Medal of Honor.
“It is our privilege to launch this lecture series in honor of Secretary Mineta,” said Ann Burroughs, JANM president and CEO. “He embodied the best of this nation and never flinched from standing up for justice and democracy. Like Norm before him, Mayor Landrieu has dedicated his life to public service, both guided by the same principles and an implacable belief in the power of democracy.”
Landrieu is former senior advisor to the president and White House infrastructure coordinator. He served as the 61st mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018, while the city was still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and in the midst of the BP Oil Spill. Under his leadership, New Orleans is widely recognized as one of the nation’s great comeback stories.
In 2015, Landrieu was named Public Official of the Year by Governing, and was voted “America’s Top Turnaround Mayor” in 2016 in a Politico survey of mayors. His decision to take down four Confederate monuments in New Orleans earned him the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.
He is the author of “In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History,” which recounts his personal journey confronting the issue of race and institutional racism that still plagues America, and in 2018 founded E Pluribus Unum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to build a more equitable and inclusive South.
The lecture will follow a public ceremony naming JANM’s historic plaza in Mineta’s honor to commemorate his extraordinary legacy, his lifelong commitment to democracy, and his profound impact on the museum.
The Distinguished Lecture Series will feature national leaders and voices that are creating change and shaping democracy to provoke thought and inspire change in the U.S., and is one of two such series to be presented by the Democracy Center. The Irene Hirano Inouye Distinguished Lecture Series will launch later this year.