Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson Was A Democrat From Texas

A Black woman in the U.S. House of Representatives

She retired after serving for thirty years.

Eddie Bernice Johnson died on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2023. She was born on December 3, 1934. She was an American politician who represented Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives for thirty years from 1993 to 2023.

She was elected to the House in 1992 and was the first registered nurse in Congress. When Don Young died in March 2022, Johnson became the oldest member of the House of Representatives. She retired at the end of that session.

Johnson was the first Black woman to win electoral office from Dallas. She was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1972.

She was born in Waco, Texas. She had wanted to become a doctor, but she was told by a high school guidance counselor that she could not be a doctor because of her gender. She received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Texas Christian University and attended Southern Methodist University where she earned a Master of Public Administration in 1976.

Johnson was the first African American to serve as Chief Psychiatric Nurse at the Dallas Veterans Administration Hospital. After sixteen years in that position, she entered politics.

President Jimmy Carter appointed Johnson as the regional director for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

She was elected as a Texas state senator in 1986. She worked against racism and faced discrimination in the legislature.

A new congressional district was created when Johnson was midway through her second term in the state senate. She ran in the Democratic primary and then defeated the Republican nominee. Although her district was redrawn in 1996, she won again. She was reelected nine more times with at least 72% of the vote.

She served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. She announced that she would retire in 2022.

A story by Jamie Stengle in The Associated Press was titled: “President Biden, House members among mourners for former Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson.”

President Biden, Democratic House Leader U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, and dozens of elected officials from across Texas and the United States joined the family and friends as they mourned the death of the Congresswoman.

Eddie Bernice Johnson was a civil rights leader who died at the age of 89.

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