The Erie Cemetery Association Foundation dedicated a new monument on Saturday honoring the family of Harry T. Burleigh.

Born in Erie, Burleigh is regarded as  "Savior of the Spirituals", creating arrangements of more than 100 African-American folk songs developed under slavery and passed down through oral traditions. 


Buried in White Plains, NY in 1949. Burleigh was re-interred in the Erie Cemetery in 1994.

The Erie Cemetery Association Foundation decided it was it was right to recognize eleven members of Burleigh's family who until now were buried in unmarked graves in a segregated section of the cemetery.

Burleigh was also a leading baritone of his time performing across the U.S. and and before crowned heads of Europe.  His father is said to have sung the songs that influenced him.

Burleigh is buried in section 4 of Erie Cemetery in the lot of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Paul which donated the gravesite.