On This Day In Black History Jan 15 - Burris, Roland (1937- )

On January 15, 2009 Roland Wallace Burris was sworn in as the U.S. Senator from Illinois. Burris’s appointment made him the third African American U.S. Senator from the state and the sixth black U.S. Senator in the history of the United States. The appointment, however, was marred by controversy as he was appointed to fill the Senatorial seat of President Barack Obama by Illinois governor Rod R. Blagojevich who had been arrested for allegedly attempting to sell that seat to the highest bidder.

Roland W. Burris was born on the 8 August 1937 in the small community of Centralia located in Southern Illinois. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree at Illinois University Carbondale, he studied International Law at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and completed his law degree at Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1963.

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