US Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, one of the most prominent Democrats from the Dallas area, died Sunday at age 88.
The Dallas Morning News also confirmed his death with an unnamed source close to the family. No cause of death was given.
Johnson was born in Waco and grew up in the segregated South. Dallas renamed the once segregated Union Station in his honor in 2019.
She served in the US House for three decades after becoming the first registered nurse elected to Congress and the first Black chief psychiatric nurse at Dallas’ Veterans Affairs hospital.
Introduced by US Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, state Sen. Royce West at a rally where West announced his bid to run for the US Senate, in Dallas, Monday, July 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Johnson became the first Black woman to chair the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and she also chaired the Congressional Black Caucus. He left office in January after repeated delays in his retirement. Before Congress, he served in the Texas legislature.
His own experience with racism helped him get involved in politics. She recalled that officials at the VA hospital were shocked that she was Black after they took her sight-unseen, so they withdrew their offer to let her live in a campus dorm.
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President Biden said Johnson was a “dedicated nurse, state legislator, and longtime US congressman with tremendous courage and a commitment to America’s promise.”
Biden praised her “tremendous courage” and called her “an icon and mentor to generations of public servants, where her legacy of steadfastness and purpose will live on.”
“For three decades, Chairwoman Johnson has been a powerful force in the United States Congress, always focused on the future,” House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said in a statement, praising Johnson as “a steadfast trailblazer, a talented who is a legislator and an honest public servant. .”
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford said Johnson was “a fierce advocate for expanding STEM opportunities to Black and minority students” who also played a key role in helping the Biden administration pass a major package of incentives for computer chip manufacturers.
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“He is the single most effective legislator Dallas has had,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement. “No one has brought more federal infrastructure money to our city. No one has fought more for our communities and the interests and safety of our residents. And no one knows how to navigate Washington better for those Dallas man.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
