Eddie Bernice Johnson, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2023, overcame many of the obstacles faced by Black women.
- She wanted to be a doctor, but her high school counselor told her that women had to be nurses.
- Johnson received a nursing certificate in 1955 from St. Mary’s College in Indiana, one of the few nursing programs in the United States that would accept Black women.
- She started working at the VA hospital in Dallas in 1956. Not realizing that Johnson was Black, the hospital tried to rescind her employment and housing offer. She fought for and kept the job, but she wasn’t allowed to live with the white nurses. Eventually, Johnson was promoted to chief psychiatric nurse at the VA hospital.