Burris, Roland W. (Roland Wallace), 1937-

<p>Born in Centralia, Illinois, on August 30, 1937, Roland Burris received his bachelor's degree in political science from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1959. He then studied at the University of Hamburg, Germany, for a year before entering law school at Howard University.</p>

<p>Burris began his career in 1963 as a national bank examiner for the U.S. Treasury Department. This gave him the honor of being the first African American to examine banks in the United States. From 1964 to 1973, he served as vice president of Continental Illinois National Bank, making significant contacts in both the corporate and African American communities. Burris began his government career in 1973 as director of the Illinois Department of General Services. In 1978, with his election to the first of three terms as state comptroller, he made history as the first African American elected to state office. On November 6, 1990, Roland W. Burris was elected attorney general for the state of Illinois. At that time, the only African American ranking higher in state office was Douglas Wilder, the governor of Virginia. He served as Illinois attorney general from 1991 to 1995. In 1998, Burris unsuccessfully ran for the office of Governor of the State of Illinois.</p>

<p>After his public service career, Burris worked as an attorney with the Peters law firm in Chicago, where he specialized in environmental, consumer affairs and estate law. Previously, he was managing partner of the Chicago-based law firm of Jones, Ware & Grenard, one of the largest minority law firms in the country.</p>

BURRIS, Roland, a Senator from Illinois; born in Centralia, Ill., August 3, 1937; B.A., Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Ill., 1959; J.D., Howard University, 1963; national bank examiner for comptroller of the currency, U.S. Treasury Department 1963-1964; bank executive; director, Illinois State Department of General Services 1973-1976; Illinois State comptroller 1978-1990, the first African American elected to statewide office in Illinois; unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States senator in1984; Illinois State attorney general 1991-1995; trustee, Financial Accounting Foundation board 1991-1994; unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1994, 1998, and 2002; practiced law in Chicago, Ill.; appointed as a Democrat to the United States Senate on December 31, 2008, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Barack Obama, but credentials were not in order until January 12, 2009; took the oath of office on January 15, 2009, and served from January 12, 2009, to November 29, 2010, a successor having been chosen in a special election; not a candidate for election to the unexpired portion of the term.

<p>Roland Wallace Burris (born August 3, 1937) is an American politician and attorney who is a former United States Senator from the state of Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party.</p>

<p>In 1978, Burris was the first African-American elected to statewide office in Illinois, when he was elected Illinois Comptroller. He served in that office until his election as Illinois Attorney General in 1990. Since then, he has unsuccessfully run for office four more times.</p>

<p>Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama as the junior senator from Illinois. The appointment was controversial, as the governor was already under investigation and there were rumors of him being paid for the appointment. Burris succeeded Obama as the U.S. Senate's only African American member. He was briefly a candidate for election to a full term but withdrew before the Democratic primaries in the 2010 elections.</p>

<p>Roland Burris, a longtime Illinois state official, was named to succeed former Senator and President–elect Barack Obama on December 31, 2008, becoming the sixth African American to serve in the United States Senate. Burris started his political career as a teenager at a swimming pool in his hometown of Centralia, Illinois, in the south central part of the state. Burris’s father, who was vice president of the local chapter of the NAACP, had his son and four friends racially integrate the pool after a two–year struggle. The successful effort made Burris focus on law and politics: “If we, as a race of people, are going to get anywhere in this society, we’ve got to have lawyers and elected officials who are responsible and responsive—that’s what my dad said, and it resonated with me.”</p>

<p>Roland W. Burris was born on August 3, 1937, in Centralia, the youngest of Earl L. and Emma M. Burris’s three children. His father was a railroad laborer. Burris graduated from Centralia High School, and later earned a degree in political science from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1959. In 1963, Burris earned a law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., after an exchange program in Hamburg, Germany. Burris worked as a federal bank examiner following graduation from law school and then as a bank vice president. From 1973–1976, he was director of the Illinois State Department of General Services in the cabinet of Governor Daniel Walker. Burris married Berlean Miller in 1961, and they raised two children, Rolanda and Roland II.</p>

<p>Burris made his first bid to be Illinois’s comptroller in 1976, losing in the Democratic Party primary to eventual winner Michael Bakalis. When Bakalis sought the Illinois governorship in 1978, Burris ran to succeed him as comptroller. Burris won 52 percent of the vote and defeated Republican John W. Castle—a former local government affairs official for the state—in the November 7, 1978, general election. He became the first African American elected to statewide office in Illinois. Burris was re–elected twice and served as comptroller from January 1979 to January 1991. In 1990, Burris was elected Illinois state attorney general and served until 1995, after his first unsuccessful bid to be the Democratic nominee for governor.</p>