Eddie Bernice Johnson

Eddie Bernice Johnson(December 3, 1934 – December 31, 2023) was an American politician who represented Texas's30th congressional districtin theUnited States House of Representativesfrom 1993 to 2023. Johnson was a member of theDemocratic Party.

Eddie Bernice Johnson
Official portrait, 2005
Chair of theHouse Science Committee
In office January 3, 2019 – January 3, 2023
Preceded by	Lamar Smith
Succeeded by	Frank Lucas
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTexas's30thdistrict
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2023
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Jasmine Crockett
Member of theTexas Senate from the23rddistrict
In office January 13, 1987 – January 3, 1993
Preceded by	Oscar Mauzy
Succeeded by	Royce West
Member of theTexas House of Representatives from the33rddistrict
In office January 9, 1973 – September 30, 1977
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Lanell Cofer
Personal details
Born	(1934-12-03)December 3, 1934 Waco, Texas,U.S.
Died	December 31, 2023(2023-12-31)(aged 89) Dallas,Texas, U.S.
Resting place	Texas State Cemetery Austin, Texas
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Lacey Johnson ​ ​ (m.1956;div.1970)​
Children	1
Education	St Mary's College, Indiana Texas Christian University(BS) Southern Methodist University(MPA)

Johnson was elected to the House in 1992, becoming the first registered nurse in Congress. At the swearing-in of the116th United States Congress,she became dean ofTexas's congressional delegation.Upon RepresentativeDon Young's death in March 2022, Johnson became the oldest member of the House of Representatives. She retired at the end of the 117th Congress.

Johnson also served in theTexas House of Representatives,where she was elected in 1972 in a landslide, the first black woman to win electoral office from Dallas. She also served three terms in theTexas Senate.

Early life, education, and medical career

Eddie Bernice Johnson was born inWaco, Texas,on December 3, 1934,to Edward Johnson, a tailor, and Lillie Mae White Johnson, a homemaker.She and her three siblings grew up attending Toliver Chapel Baptist Church, where her mother was an active member. Johnson had aspired to a career in medicine since childhood, and wished to become a doctor, but was told by a high schoolguidance counselorthat this would not be possible because she was female.Johnson graduated from A.J. Moore High School at age 16, and moved to Indiana to attendSaint Mary's College of Notre Dame,where she graduated in 1955 with her nursing certificate.She transferred toTexas Christian University,from which she received a bachelor's degree in nursing. She later attendedSouthern Methodist Universityand earned aMaster of Public Administrationin 1976.

Johnson was the first African American to serve as Chief Psychiatric Nurse at the Dallas Veterans Administration Hospital. She entered politics after 16 years in that position.

Early political career

After passage of civil-rights legislation and theVoting Rights Act of 1965,which enabled African Americans in the South to register and vote, more African Americans began to run for office and be elected. Johnson first became known in Dallas as a civil-rights activist in the 1960s.

In 1972, as an underdog candidate running for a seat in theTexas House,Johnson won a landslide victory. She was the first black woman ever elected to public office from Dallas.She soon became the firstwoman in Texas history to lead a major Texas House committee, the Labor Committee.

Johnson left the State House in 1977, when PresidentJimmy Carterappointed her as the regional director for theDepartment of Health, Education, and Welfare,the first African-American woman to hold this position.

Johnson entered electoral politics again in 1986, when she was elected as aTexas state senator.She was the firstwoman and the firstAfrican American from the Dallas area to hold this office sinceReconstruction.Her concerns included health care, education,public housing,racial equity,economic development,and job expansion. Johnson served on the Finance Committee, for which she chaired the subcommittee on Health and Human Services, and the Education Committee. She wrote legislation to regulate diagnostic radiology centers, require drug testing in hospitals, prohibit discrimination againstAIDSvictims, improve access to health care for AIDS patients, and prohibit hospital kickbacks to doctors. Afair-housingadvocate, she sponsored a bill to empower city governments to repair substandard housing at landlords' expense, and wrote a bill to enforce prohibitions against housing discrimination.

Johnson worked against racism while dealing with discrimination in the legislature. "Being a woman and being black is perhaps a double handicap," she told theChicago Tribune."When you see who's in the important huddles, who's making the important decisions, it's men."Johnson sponsored several bills aimed at equity, including a bill to establish goals for Texas to do business with "socially disadvantaged" businesses. She crafted a fair-housing act aimed at toughening fair-housing laws and establishing a commission to investigate complaints ofdiscriminatory housing practices.

Johnson also held committee hearings and investigated complaints. In 1989, she testified in federal court about racism in Dallas's city government. In 1992, she formally asked theJustice Departmentto investigate harassment of local black students. That same year, she held hearings to examine discrimination charges about unfair contracting bids for the government'sSuperconducting Super Collider.

Johnson feared the legacy that discrimination leaves for youth. "I am frightened to see young people who believe that a racist power structure is responsible for every negative thing that happens to them," she told theNew York Times."After a point it does not matter whether these perceptions are true or false; it is the perceptions that matter."

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

Midway through her second term in the state senate, Johnson ran in the Democratic primary for the newly created30th congressional district.She defeated Republican nominee Lucy Cain 72%-25% in the 1992 general election, and became the first nurse elected to the United States Congress.In 1994, she defeated Cain again, 73%-26%.

In 1996, after her district was significantly redrawn as a result ofBush v. Vera,she was reelected to a third term with 55% of the vote, the worst election performance of her congressional career. All the candidates in the race appeared on a single ballot regardless of party, and Johnson faced two other Democrats. Proving just how Democratic this district still was, the three Democrats tallied 73% of the vote.

Johnson never faced another contest nearly that close. She was reelected nine more times with at least 72% of the vote. In 2012, Johnson easily beat two opponents in the Democratic primary, State Representative Barbara Mallory Caraway and lawyer Taj Clayton, gaining 70% of the vote; she won the general election with almost 79% of the vote.She was reelected in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. In October 2019, Johnson announced she would retire in 2022.

Tenure

The 17th chair of theCongressional Black Caucus,Johnson opposed theIraq Resolution of 2002.During debate on the House floor, she stated:

I am not convinced that giving the President the authority to launch a unilateral, first-strike attack on Iraq is the appropriate course of action at this time. While I believe that under international law and under the authority of our Constitution, the United States must maintain the option to act in its own self-defense, I strongly believe that the administration has not provided evidence of an imminent threat of attack on the United States that would justify a unilateral strike. I also believe that actions alone, without exhausting peaceful options, could seriously harm global support for our war on terrorism and distract our own resources from this cause.

In 2007,House Transportation and Infrastructure CommitteeChairJim Oberstarappointed Johnson chair of itsSubcommittee on Water Resources and Environmentduring the110thand111th Congresses.She was the first African American and first woman in Congress to chair this subcommittee. As Subcommittee Chair, Johnson sponsored theWater Resources Development Act.She led Congress in overriding President Bush's veto of it, the only veto override of his presidency.

During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Johnson initially supported U.S. SenatorJohn Edwards.After he withdrew from the race, she pledged her support as a superdelegate toBarack Obama.Her district backed Obama heavily in the election.

Johnson and Representative Donna Edwards proposed a publicly funded park on the moon to mark where theApollo missionslanded between 1969 and 1972. The Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act, H.R. 2617, calls for the park to be run jointly by the Department of the Interior and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Johnson attendedCOP26in 2021 and urged immediate climate action, warning, "Scientists have been sounding the alarm on climate for years" and "Inaction is not an option". "We are working to build a clean energy future while creating high quality jobs, and so much more", she said.

Armenian genocide denial

Johnson consistently opposed the historical consensus on theArmenian genocide.In 2009, when asked if she acknowledged the Armenian genocide, she responded "No, I don't."In 2017, when interviewed for a film and asked if she denied that the Armenian genocide occurred, Johnson replied "I do deny that."In 2019, Johnson was one of three House members to vote "present" on a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide.TheArmenian National Committee of Americagave Johnson an F− rating for her voting record during the 117th congress.

Presidential election objections

In 2001, Johnson and other House members objected to countingFlorida's electoral votes in the2000 presidential election.Because no senator joined her objection, it was dismissed by Senate PresidentAl Gore.

In 2005, Johnson was one of 31 House Democrats who voted not to count Ohio'selectoral votesin the2004 presidential election.Without Ohio's electoral votes, the election would have been decided by the U.S. House of Representatives, with each state having one vote, in accordance with theTwelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Johnson voted to certify Joe Biden's win in the 2020 presidential election.Johnson called the2021 United States Capitol attack"like a real war".

Scholarship violations

In August 2010, Amy Goldson, counsel for theCongressional Black Caucus Foundation,said that Johnson violated organizational rules by awarding at least 15 scholarships to relatives of her own or to children of her district director, Rod Givens. The awards violated an anti-nepotismrule and the recipients did not qualify for the scholarships because they were not residents of Johnson's district. Johnson said she "unknowingly" made a mistake in awarding the grants and would work with the foundation to rectify it.

OpponentStephen Brodenreleased letters bearing Johnson's signature in which she requested that the scholarship check be made out to and sent directly to her relatives, instead of to the destination university as would normally be done.TheDallas Morning Newsran an editorial questioning her changing story on the matter, saying that it was overshadowing her service in the House.

Committees

In December 2010, Johnson became the first African American and the first female Ranking Member of theHouse Committee on Science, Space and Technology.From 2000 to 2002, she was the Ranking Member of theSubcommittee on Research and Science Education.Johnson has been a strong advocate of investing inscience, technology, engineering and math(STEM) education. In 2012, she introduced the Broadening Participation in STEM Education Act, which would authorize the Director of theNational Science Foundation(NSF) to award grants to increase the number of students from underrepresented minority groups receiving STEM degrees. The bill would also expand the number of faculty members from underrepresented minority groups at colleges and universities.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Science and Technology(chair)
• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Aviation
  • Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
  • Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Arts Caucus
• Congressional Black Caucus
• Congressional Tri Caucus (founder)
• LGBT Equality Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Rare Disease Congressional Caucus
• Congressional Cement Caucus
• Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus
• U.S.-Japan Caucus

Personal life and death

Johnson was a member ofAlpha Kappa Alphasorority andThe Links.In 1956, she married educator Lacey Kirk Johnson. They had one child, a son. The marriage ended in divorce in 1970.

Johnson died in Dallas on December 31, 2023, at the age of 89,shortly after being admitted into hospice care.Three days later, her family announced plans to file a lawsuit against her health-care providers, claiming medical negligence was responsible for her death.

Legacy

Dallas Independent School Districtopened an elementary school inWilmer, Texas,named after Johnson, in 2020.

Dallas Union Stationis officially known as "Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station" after Johnson.

See also

• List of African-American United States representatives
• Women in the United States House of Representatives

External links

• AppearancesonC-SPAN

• Biographyat theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office)at theFederal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsoredat theLibrary of Congress
• ProfileatVote Smart