February 13, 2025
Eddie Bernice Johnson, who represented North Texas within the U.S. Congress for 30 years, dies at 88

Johnson was elected to the U.S. Home of Representatives in 1993 and retired in January 2023. She beforehand served within the Texas Senate and Texas Home.

DALLAS — Eddie Bernice Johnson, the trailblazing legislator who represented North Texas in Congress for the final 30 years, has died at 88 years previous, her household has confirmed on social media.

Johnson was elected to signify Texas’ thirtieth District within the Home of Representatives in 1992. She would maintain that seat for 30 years — successful reelection 15 occasions — earlier than retiring from her publish, as promised, in January 2023. 

Previous to serving in Congress, Johnson additionally served three phrases within the Texas Senate, the place she represented Dallas County and the twenty third District from 1987 till she took nationwide workplace in 1993.

Earlier than shifting to the Texas Senate, Johnson served as a member of the Texas Home of Representatives and represented Home District 33 from 1973 to 1977. 

When she gained that seat in 1972, she turned the primary Black girl ever elected to public workplace within the Metropolis of Dallas’ historical past.

Later, because the chief of that chamber’s Labor Committee, she would additionally grow to be the primary girl ever to steer a significant Texas Home committee.

Johnson — identified to many in the neighborhood merely as “EBJ” — was born in Waco in 1935 when only a few individuals who appeared like her held positions of energy. She would later go to nursing faculty and grow to be the primary registered nurse to be elected to the USA Congress.

As she rose up the ranks in the USA Home of Representatives, Johnson secured thousands and thousands of {dollars} in federal funding in North Texas — with a particular give attention to Dallas Space Speedy Transit (DART), which she referred to as her “child.”

“I’m happy with what I’ve completed,” she as soon as stated, reflecting on her time spent in workplace. “As a result of there isn’t a Texan within the historical past of this state that has introduced extra residence.” 

In 2019, the DART board voted to rename Downtown Dallas’ Union Station — a significant cease for the DART Rail’s crimson and blue strains, in addition to the Trinity Railway Specific commuter rail line and Amtrak — to EBJ Union Station in her honor. That very same 12 months, the Metropolis of Dallas voted to rename the bodily property of Union Station to Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station.

In a December 2021 look on WFAA’s Inside Texas Politics, Johnson mirrored about her time in workplace, her efforts in representing the individuals of North Texas, and the delight she took in preventing for voting and ladies’s rights all through her tenure.

“I imagine strongly in equity and justice, and I imagine our nation additionally does,” Johnson advised WFAA on the time. “We is likely to be divided on among the particulars, however so long as I’m round I’m gonna be pushing these points.”

Johnson stated she wished her legacy to simply be seen as she was. 

“Somebody who received into workplace for the only function of attempting to see what I may add, what I may do to make issues higher,” she stated. “It’s by no means been a glamour place… and I say to individuals on a regular basis, if I made it look simple, I apologize. It isn’t simple. [It] takes all you bought, however it’s value it.”

Johnson’s seat within the U.S. Home was crammed earlier this 12 months by Rep. Jasmine Crockett, whom Johnson shortly endorsed after first saying her retirement. Even after her profitable marketing campaign, Crockett spoke of hoping to proceed the legacy of the onerous work and advocacy that Johnson delivered to representing Texas’ thirtieth in Congress.

Johnson, for her half, very a lot lived that legacy proper up till her ultimate breath — simply as she promised she would when becoming a member of Inside Texas Politics in 2021 to debate her retirement plans.

Mentioned Johnson: “I’ll at all times, so long as I’m respiratory, work to see if we will get just a little nearer to what all of us dream about.” 

In a social media publish saying her passing, Johnson’s son Dawrence Kirk Johnson stated funeral providers for his mom can be introduced quickly.

“I’m heartbroken to share the information that my mom, Eddie Bernice Johnson, has handed away,” Johnson’s son wrote. “She was a exceptional and loving mom, mother-in-law, grandmother and nice grandmother, in addition to a trailblazer and public servant. Whereas we mourn the lack of a unprecedented girl, we have fun her life and legacy. She will likely be deeply missed.”