Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche.

Excerpt from The King Holiday and Service Act of 1993: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, Second Session; April 13, 1994 America has changed a great deal in the days since Dr. Martin Luther King first sprung to national prominence during the Mont gomery bus boycott. The laws that created a dual society in so many parts of this land have been struck down. Segregation in public accommodations has ended. Official barriers to the right to vote have been rejected. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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. Johnson’s narrative of the duties and responsibilities of elected officials gives an insider’s view of the way government works—or doesn’t work. Highlights of Johnson’s political career include her support of NAFTA and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act; the failure of the Health Security Act; her support of the Patient Recovery and Affordable Care Act, as well as the CHIPS-Science Act; her service as the chairwoman of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology; and her membership on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. “Eddie Bernice Johnson has demonstrated exemplary service in the US Congress representing the people of Texas’s 30th Congressional District. I’ve been proud to work with Congresswoman Johnson to grow the economy through investments in transportation, science, innovation, technology, and trade.”—Former president Barack Obama, 2023