Busboys and Poets welcomes Roland Burris to discuss and sign his book, The Man Who Stood Up to Be Seated: The Memoirs of Roland W. Burris
On November 4, 2008, the world watched history unfold. Some watched in despair; some in joy; but all in amazement. In his eighteen-minute, history-making acceptance speech, the nation s newly-elected, 44th President, Barack Obama, cautioned the world that the challenges tomorrow will be the greatest of our lifetime. Little did Roland Burris know how accurately those words described the rough and acrimonious time that soon would overshadow his own successful thirty-year political career? The challenges he would face during that tumultuous period would be among the greatest of his lifetime. It is a known fact that being the first of anything comes with a price. However, having been a trailblazer all his life, a destiny which he sincerely believes was one that was assigned to him, not one he personally chose, he can tell you the strides accomplished were well-worth the anguish. Join Roland W. Burris on the journey of his life and career in 'The Man Who Stood Up to Be Seated: The Memoirs of Roland W. Burris'.
About the Author
Roland Wallace Burris, the youngest of three children of Earl and Emma Burris, was born on August 3, 1937 in Centralia, a small southern Illinois community where he was raised and received his early education. The Burris family tree traces the family s roots as far back as the slavery era, with origins mostly in the southern states of Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. In 1955, Burris graduated from Centralia High School and enrolled at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale where, in 1959, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. After graduation from SIU, Burris received a fellowship to become an exchange student at the University of Hamburg in Germany where he studied international law. Upon his return to the USA in 1960, he enrolled at the Howard University Law School where, in 1963, he earned the Juris Doctor degree. After graduation from law school, Burris accepted a position as a national bank examiner for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency of the U.S. Treasury Department. From 1964 to 1973, he worked at Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company (now Bank of America), serving as tax accountant, tax consultant, commercial banking officer, and vice-president. While at Continental, Burris also headed a commercial group that covered government guaranteed loans and minority business banking. In 1978, Burris became the first African-American to win election to statewide office in Illinois, when he was elected Illinois Comptroller, a position which he had sought unsuccessfully in 1976. In 1984, in the second of his three successful terms as Illinois Comptroller, Burris also ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate. In 1990, Burris was elected Illinois Attorney General, the first African-American to be elected to this position in Illinois. After his tenure as Illinois Attorney General, Burris served as managing partner for the law firm of Jones, Ware, and Grenard. He also served as counsel to the law firm of Gonzalez, Saggio and Harlan, L.L.C., where his areas of legal concentration were business transactions, estate planning, wills, trusts, probate, and consumer affairs. Burris was also a partner in the political consulting firm, Burris and LeBed. In 2008, Burris was appointed by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to replace President-Elect Barack Obama as the junior Senator from Illinois. After a protracted battle defending the legality of his nomination by the Governor and the ethics of his acceptance of the position, Burris and his legal team prevailed and he was seated as a Senator from the State of Illinois on January 15, 2009. Burris has served in many state, regional, and national positions, such as Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Chairman of the Illinois Commission of African-American Males, the National Association of Attorneys General Civil Rights Commission, and the Illinois State Justice Commission.
