Born in 1915, James Burgess was reared on a farm in Putnam
County, Tennessee. He attended Darwin High School and
went to Junior College on an athletic scholarship. Mr.
Burgess pitched for semi-pro baseball teams. He married
Doris Murray and they had two sons.
Mr. Burgess entered the Armed Forces in 1941. A World
War II veteran who was in combat with the 761st Tank Battalion,
Mr. Burgess went on to serve as a special agent in the
Counter-Intelligence Corps. He retired in 1962 as a major.
Mr. Burgess was a 1961 graduate of the University of
Maryland with a BA degree and earned his law degree from
the University of Illinois College of Law in 1965. After
serving as an assistant state's attorney in Chicago and
Champaign, Mr. Burgess was elected State's Attorney of
Champaign County in 1972.
He was the county's first African American state's attorney
and was believed to be the first African American elected
to this office in Illinois. He was appointed in 1977 as
U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Illinois, later
designated the Southern District. Based in East St. Louis,
he served in that position until his retirement in 1982.
Mr. Burgess was a member of the American, Chicago, Champaign
Seventh Federal Circuit and Illinois State Bar Association.
He was also a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association.
A member of the First United Methodist Church of Champaign,
he served on the advisory board of the church and on a
number of church committees. He served as a member of
the MacMurray Board of Trustees and was a lay member of
the Central Illinois Conference. He served for many years
on the Board of Directors of Covenant Hospital, the Frances
Nelson Health Center and was one of the founding members
of the Prairie AIDS Foundation.
