Former U.S. Congressman Eddie Bernice Johnson dies at 88

Sign up for The Brief, the Texas Tribune's daily newsletter that provides readers with the most important Texas news.

Retired U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson has died, her family announced on social media Sunday. She was 89 years old.

Johnson, a Dallas politician and former nurse, state representative and congressman, served as head of the Texas congressional delegation until her retirement in 2022. She has proven competent at her job due to her long tenure as a member of Congress, nearly 30 years old. She was many years old when she died. And because of her pragmatic tendencies, she was willing to work with Republicans.

“I am heartbroken to share the news of the passing of my mother, Eddie Bernice Johnson,” Johnson's son, Kirk Johnson, said in a Facebook post Sunday. “She was a wonderful and loving mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and great-grandmother, a pioneer and a public servant. While we mourn the loss of an extraordinary woman, we will continue to honor her life and… I congratulate her on her accomplishments.”

Born in Waco on December 3, 1934, Mr. Johnson became one of the most powerful Texas Democrats to ever serve in the Capitol. When she became chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, she was the only Texas-based chair in both chambers.

She broke many glass ceilings. She was the first Black woman elected to a Dallas seat, the first nurse and Black Dallasite to serve in Congress, and the third Texas woman after Lela Thomas and Barbara Jordan. Ta. HOUSTON — Represents the state in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson: “I am stunned and saddened to learn of the passing of my dear friend, Congressman Eddie Bernice Johnson.'' I wrote to X Sunday morning. “Congressman Johnson was a groundbreaking leader for this country and our state and city. There are truly no words to express my deep sadness and sense of loss over the passing of this legendary American.”

Mr. Johnson will lie in state as a state guest on Monday, January 8th, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the State Building at Fair Park in Dallas, followed by a wake service at Concord Church from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Concord Church. Prior to Mr. Johnson's burial, a graveside service is scheduled for January 10 at 2:00 p.m. at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.

Mr. Johnson's ascent

Johnson said she first learned about her career in fighting racial injustice when she was in elementary school. That's when she met Doris “Dolly” Miller, a black Marine. While stationed at Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was relegated to chaos duty due to racist policies. During the attack on December 7, he participated in the battle and shot down a Japanese plane without inflicting any damage. He received ammunition training and he became known as a war hero.

“I met Mr. Miller when I was in first grade. I wanted to do something to shake his hand and thank him for his service in the military,” she told KXAS in 2020. told. I got it back. ”

Miller was killed in the Pacific Theater in 1943 when his ship was hit by a torpedo.

Decades later, Johnson helped name a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier after Miller, making it the first aircraft carrier to be named after a black man.

After graduating from AJ Moore High School in 1952, Johnson aimed to work in the medical field.There were no nursing programs in segregated Texas, so he attended St. Mary's College at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where he earned his nursing certificate. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas Christian University in 1967 and a Master of Public Administration degree from Southern Methodist University in 1976.

Immediately after graduating from nursing school in South Bend, she accepted a job working at a Veterans Administration hospital in Dallas.

“My father worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Waco, but two members of the same family could not work at the same federal facility. So I applied for a position in Dallas and they accepted me. They were shocked when I showed up, like, “I was black, and there were no black professionals in Dallas at that time,'' she said. he told Dallas reporter Jim Schutze in 1985.

“I had never seen such extreme segregationism. In Waco, there were 'colored' and 'white' signs everywhere, and there was a history of lynching. But in Dallas, it was so blatant. “Racism quickly became apparent,” she added. ”

Eventually, Johnson became chief psychiatric nurse and psychotherapist at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Dallas. She became the hospital's first black female psychiatric chief nurse.

A high-end retailer in Dallas barred her from its store until she befriended a white salesperson at Neiman Marcus, who welcomed her back. Neiman Marcus' CEO at the time was civic leader Stanley Marcus, who recognized Johnson's potential and groomed her into a new generation of leaders in Dallas' black community. Johnson offered her a job at his retail store in exchange for her running for the Texas state legislature. . In 1972 she was elected to the state House of Representatives.

That year, Johnson formed what would become an important political alliance, working with a young Democratic staffer named Bill Clinton, who was sent to the state to support George McGovern's presidential campaign that year.

After being sworn in as a state representative, Johnson met another hero, Lyndon Baines Johnson. She recalled to the Waco Tribune in 2014 that she met him when she visited the Texas State Capitol with her son in January 1973. He died of a heart attack a week later.

During his third term in the Texas House of Representatives, Johnson resigned and accepted a position as a regional appointee in the Carter Administration in the Department of Health, Education, and Human Services (now the Department of Health and Human Services). She was re-elected to Congress in 1986, this time to the Senate.

Mr. Johnson, who served as chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee in the early 1990s, is widely known for charting a new 30th Congressional District that would overlap with his own state legislative district.

The Dallas-based neighborhood is one of the bluest in Texas.

Career as a parliamentarian

Johnson ended up winning the Congressional district she helped create in 1992. She regularly sought re-election in all subsequent elections.

When Johnson was first sworn into Congress, she was the only woman in the state's U.S. House delegation. There are currently eight women serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, who was elected with Johnson's support to replace the retiring congresswoman. .

Ms. Johnson's start in Washington coincided with the political rise of her close friend, Mr. Clinton, to the presidency. Five years later, when Republicans impeached Johnson in 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, the Almanac of American Politics credited him with solidifying black support for Clinton.

Her career was not without controversy. In 2010, the Dallas Morning News reported that Johnson directed her scholarship money to the children of relatives and aides of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, a violation of the organization's anti-nepotism rules. was subjected to a storm of criticism.

From 2001 to 2003, Johnson chaired the Congressional Black Caucus, a powerful voting bloc in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Johnson opposed the 2000 presidential election, which he deemed illegitimate, and in early 2001 Congress met for the ceremonial certification of President George W. Bush's Electoral College victory, a fellow Texan. At the time, he led a group of members of Congress in protest from the House floor.

Later that year, Johnson was among those evacuated from the Capitol when a hijacked plane flew toward Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001.

Less than two years later, she cast her most significant vote against authorizing Bush to use troops in Iraq.

“I am awed by the moral weight of this decision,” she said on the House floor on October 8, 2002.

“No one wants to be on the other side of the president at a time like this, but I regret to inform my colleagues that I cannot support this resolution in its current form.”

At the same time, Johnson was known among Texas Republicans as a willing Democrat to collaborate on parochial issues important to the state.

The 2008 Democratic presidential primary was perhaps the most dangerous political moment of her career. She was an early supporter of former Sen. John Edwards as the nominee. But as soon as Ms. Clinton withdrew from the race, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama scrambled to win her support. By then, the battle in the presidential race had begun to shift from voters and caucusgoers to Democratic “superdelegates” like Mr. Johnson.

Johnson ultimately supported Obama, but years later she telegraphed the amount of pain that choice caused her.

Johnson supported Hillary Clinton's second presidential bid in early 2016 and supported former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential campaign.

In 2019, Johnson became chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, a congressional oversight committee with roots in the U.S. response to Russia's Sputnik launch.

In that role, she was the top Democrat overseeing NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Weather Service, and parts of the Departments of Energy and Transportation.

During President Donald Trump's final two years in office, she was the most critical of his administration's reluctance to adopt policies to significantly combat global warming.

Mr. Johnson has provided millions of dollars for improvements in North Texas, including a federal grant to expand Dallas' light rail to accommodate more passengers and longer trains. In honor of Johnson's unique place in Dallas' history, city leaders renamed the city's downtown station in his honor on the station's 100th anniversary in 2016.

Following the news of Mr Johnson's death, there was an outpouring of support from friends and public servants.

Representative Colin Allred of Dallas praised Johnson for paving his path to leadership.

“I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for Congresswoman Johnson and her efforts to open the door to public office for a new generation of Texans,” Allred said in a statement. You can see the footprints they left behind.” Our state is at the forefront of everything from improving the VA to investing in transportation, fighting for civil rights for Texans, and her work as chair of the House Science Committee to pass the CHIPS Act and invest in high-tech manufacturing. We have carried out various activities up until now. ”

Crockett, who replaced Johnson in the House of Representatives, was honored when Johnson called him to run for the 30th District seat, even though he was only a freshman in the Texas House of Representatives at the time. said.

“I never dreamed that she knew what I was doing in the House,” Crockett said in a statement. “But that's the thing about her. She never slept. She was always working.”

“The president did not take passing on the torch lightly, and similarly, I did not take lightly the entrustment placed on me to honor her work and legacy,” Crockett added. “Every day that passes is a day that I dedicate to continuing her work and trying to fulfill her role.”

Johnson had a son, Kirk, and three grandchildren, Kirk Jr., David, and James. She was married to Lacey Kirk Johnson until 1970.

Disclosure: Facebook, Southern Methodist University, and Texas Christian University financially support The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by contributions from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. I did. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. See the complete list of them here.