Eddie Bernice Johnson
politician
Personal Information
Born Eddie Bernice Johnson, December 3, 1935, in Waco, TX; divorced; children: Dawrence Kirk, Jr.
Education: St. Mary's College of Notre Dame, nursing diploma, 1955; Texas Christian University, B.S., nursing, 1967; Southern Methodist University, M.S., 1976.
Politics: Democrat.
Memberships: Visiting Nurse Association; Links, Inc.; Girlfriends Inc.; Alpha Kappa Alpha; Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); National Council of Negro Women; National Order of Women Legislators.
Career
Dallas Veterans Administration Hospital, Dallas, TX, psychiatric nurse, 1956-72; Texas House of Representatives, representative, 1972-77; Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, DC, regional director, 1977-79; Eddie Bernice Johnson and Associates, Inc., Dallas, founder, c. 1981(?); Sammons Enterprises Inc., assistant to the president, 1981-87; Texas Senate, senator, 1986-92; U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, congressional representative for the 30th District of Texas, 1993--. Sunbelt National Bank, board member.
Life's Work
Eddie Bernice Johnson has had a rich and varied career as a nurse, a politician, and an entrepreneur. She has served as a Texas state senator and representative, and in 1992, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Along the path of this multifaceted career, she achieved a number of firsts both for women and for African Americans. She was the first black woman ever elected to public office from Dallas, the first black to represent Dallas in the state Senate since Reconstruction, the first woman ever to represent Dallas in the state Senate, the first woman in Texas to chair a major state House committee, and the first black and first woman elected to the U.S. Congress from North Texas.
Born and raised in Waco, Texas, Johnson's first aspirations were in medicine. She could not attend college in her own state because of her race, so she left Texas and attended the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, where she received a diploma in nursing in 1956. After 16 years as a psychiatric nurse at the Dallas Veterans Administration Hospital, she entered politics. In 1972, as an underdog candidate running for a seat in the Texas House, she won a landslide victory and became the first black woman ever elected to public office from Dallas.
John son left the state House in 1977, when President Jimmy Carter appointed her as the regional director for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Her experience in health care as a nurse, in politics as a state representative, and her master's degree in public administration--obtained in 1976--made her a natural choice for the job. When Ronald Reagan replaced Carter in the White House, Johnson left public service to become an entrepreneur. Her business, Eddie Bernice Johnson and Associates, Inc., helped companies expand or relocate in the Dallas area; in 1988, she expanded operations to manage airport concessions at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
Johnson entered politics again in 1986, when she successfully ran for state Senate. Her particular concerns as a senator included health care, education, public housing, racial equity, economic development, and job expansion. She served on the Finance Committee, for which she chaired the subcommittee on Health and Human Services, and on the Education Committee. Her interest in health care led her to write legislation to regulate diagnostic radiology centers, require drug testing in hospitals, prohibit discrimination against AIDS victims, improve access to health care for AIDS patients, and prohibit hospital kickbacks to doctors. As a fair housing advocate, she sponsored a bill to empower city governments to repair substandard housing at the expense of landlords, and wrote a bill to enforce prohibitions against housing discrimination.
As a lawmaker, Johnson was able to bring to a public forum her fight against racism. This was no easy task, however, for she faced discrimination herself in the legislature. "Being a woman and being black is perhaps a double handicap," she told the Chicago Tribune. "When you see who's in the important huddles, who's making the important decisions, it's men." But Johnson was able to make a difference. She sponsored several bills aimed towards equity, including a bill to establish goals for the state to do business with 'socially-disadvantaged' businesses, and crafted a fair housing act aimed at toughening up fair housing laws and establishing a commission to investigate complaints of discriminatory housing practices.
In addition to her legislation, Johnson held hearings and investigated complaints. In 1989, she testified in a federal court about racism in the Dallas city government. In 1992, she formally asked the Justice Department to investigate harassment of local black students. That same year, she held hearings to examine discrimination charges about unfair contracting bids for the government's Superconducting Supercollider. One thing Johnson fears most about discrimination is the legacy it 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 explained to the New York Times. "After a point it does not matter whether these perceptions are true or false; it is the perceptions that matter."
One of Johnson's toughest fights for racial equity came after the 1990 census figures gave Texas three new U.S. congressional districts. The 1965 Voting Rights Act and its 1982 amendments encouraged minority voting strength and allowed gerrymandering of district borders to achieve minority voting blocks. Johnson chaired the reapportionment committee for Texas, and set out to create equitable and fair districts in her state. "[I can clearly] understand why there is a Voting Rights Act," she told USA Today, "because black voters basically have been split up and used to elect others."
The new districts created by her committee included one, the 30th district, that was 50 percent black and 17 percent Hispanic, and two others that were primarily Hispanic. Her plans for the districts sparked much controversy for they changed the districts of several incumbent congressmen. After Johnson announced her own candidacy for the newly-created 30th district, opponents claimed she rigged the boundaries expressly for the purpose of getting herself elected. Because of her role in the creation of the new congressional districts, Johnson's campaign was well publicized, even outside of her state. The Wall Street Journal published an editorial blasting the gerrymandering and the complexity of district lines that "destroy the idea of a political community.... Some voters won't know what district they're in until the first direct mail campaign propaganda arrives." Texas Monthly magazine selected Johnson as one of the state's ten worst lawmakers because of the new boundaries.
Johnson denied creating a district for her own political gain, stating that her goal was to consolidate a strong minority district without substantially altering the black-voter base in adjacent districts. "I wanted a district that any black could win in," she told the Dallas Morning News. "It's clear that my opponent uses that as a major issue against me, but just as much as it is a major issue against me, it is also a major issue for me because these people are so pleased to be enfranchised." With her substantial public service record, Johnson was perceived to be just the infusion House Democrats needed. In a landslide victory, voters elected her to Congress, making her the area's first minority representative.
Once in Congress, Johnson went to work immediately on her primary concerns of jobs and health care. She became the Congressional Black Caucus Whip and joined the Science, Space, and Technology Committee and the Public Works and Transportation Committee. In her first term, she also became the focus of more controversy. During the days before the November 1993 congressional vote on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), it was reported that Johnson had traded her vote for promises that two expensive aircraft would be built in her district. Opponents of NAFTA charged the Clinton Administration and Johnson with bribery. Johnson maintained that the press misunderstood her choice, and claimed her decision was based on the job growth potential of the bill. "Every employer in my area that I have visited with ... assures me that if NAFTA passes, there will be additional jobs," she explained to the Dallas Morning News.
After a nursing career, a career in state politics, and one as an entrepreneur, Johnson has only just begun her congressional career. At the end of her first term, she announced her intentions to run again. With her record of firsts for the state legislature, and her energy, drive, and dedication, it will not be surprising if she adds a few congressional firsts to her list soon.
Awards
Juanita Craft Award in Politics, NAACP, 1989; White Hat award, Texas Farmers Union, 1989; Scholar Award, United Negro College Fund (Dallas chapter), 1992; Family Advocacy Award, The Family Place, Dallas, 1992; received honorary law doctorates from Bishop College, 1979, Jarvis Christian College, 1979, and Texas College, 1989.
Further Reading
- American Journal of Nursing, December 1992, p. 71.
- Chicago Tribune, August 19, 1990, p. C-1.
- Christian Science Monitor, November 19, 1993, p. 3.
- Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, January 18, 1992, p. 135; January 16, 1993, p. 139.
- Cook Political Report, December 18, 1992, p. 117.
- Dallas Morning News, October 8, 1992, p. 24-A; October 19, 1992, p. 19-A; November 14, 1992, p. 8-K; December 19, 1992, p. 30-A; June 12, 1993, p. 4-A; November 7, 1993, p. 6-H; November 28, 1993, p. 8-A.
- Ebony, May 1993, p. 36; May 1994, p. 36.
- Houston Chronicle, December 4, 1991, p. A-27; December 16, 1991, p. A-17; November 17, 1991, p. 2.
- Jet, May 10, 1993, p. 10.
- New York Times, September 10, 1989, sec. 4, p. 4; November 8, 1993, p. 1.
- USA Today, February 5, 1992, p. 5-A.
- Wall Street Journal, October 18, 1991, p. A-14.
- Washington Post, December 26, 1993, p. C-2.
— Robin Armstrong
