Desire to Serve: The Autobiography of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson

Published: June, 2024  Pages: 464  Features: 35 b&w illus. Notes. Index.

Desire to Serve is the autobiography of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (1934–2023), a thirty-year member of the United States House of Representatives, in her words as told to Cheryl Brown Wattley. It chronicles Johnson growing up in segregated Waco, Texas; attending St. Mary’s nursing school in South Bend, Indiana; working at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Dallas, Texas, as a chief psychiatric nurse; serving in the Texas House; being appointed as the regional director for Health, Education and Welfare; being elected as a Texas state senator; and serving thirty years as a congressional representative from North Texas. For each of these positions, she was either the first African American or first African American woman to hold the position. more... about Desire to Serve: The Autobiography of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson