Early Career
After graduating from law school, Burris became National Bank Examiner for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for the U.S. Treasury Department. In that capacity, he traveled throughout the Midwest, examining banks in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. The adversities he faced as an African-American bank examiner in the early 1960s were described in some detail in the February 2013 edition of SuperVisions (the OCC's employee newsletter). 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. He headed a commercial group that covered government guaranteed loans and minority business banking.
In 1973, he was appointed by Illinois Governor Daniel Walker as Director of the Department of Central Management Services, serving through 1977.
He was National Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer for Operation PUSH from January to October 1977. He was in private law practice from October 1977 to January 1979, and again from June 1995 to present.
In 1985, Burris was selected for the position of Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. This decision, coming on the heels of the party's landslide loss to President Ronald Reagan, generated controversy, since Gary, Indiana Mayor Richard Hatcher, who had served as the campaign manager for presidential candidate Jesse L. Jackson, was the nominee of the party's Black Caucus. Jackson harshly criticized the party's actions, and refused to recognize Burris's selection, claiming that it was part of an effort by the Democratic Party leadership to pander to the white American electorate.
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