Roland Burris: The First African American National Bank Examiner

In 1963, exactly 100 years after the formation of the OCC, a young man fresh out of law school was hired by the OCC to be a bank examiner in the Chicago Duty Station. What made that particular hiring a special event was the fact that it was the first time the OCC had hired an African American as a bank examiner. His name was Roland W. Burris.

Roland W. Burris, First African American National Bank Examiner

Burris said his first assignment was at the Livestock National Bank in Chicago. Since it was his first job, he wanted to arrive early.

“My boss wasn’t there yet,” he later recalled. “So, of course, I had to knock on the door. The guard was barring the door. He wasn’t going to let me in. I stuck my credentials through the door, and he kept shaking his head. Someone got an officer of the bank, and the officer read ‘Comptroller of the Currency’ on the badge. So they opened the door and said, ‘OK, you can sit right here.’ Until my boss showed up, they wouldn’t let me move.”

Burris continued his public service career after leaving the OCC. He became the first African American elected to an Illinois statewide office in 1978. He then served as the state’s Comptroller for three terms and was elected Illinois Attorney General in 1990. He was later appointed to the U.S. Senate, representing Illinois.