Arts & Entertainment
Harry T. Burleigh
SESQUICENTENNIAL
celebrated in December
By Johnny Johnson
Contributing writer
The 150th anniversary of the birth
of Erie native Harry Thacker Burleigh
— a professional singer, classical composer and arranger — takes place Dec.
2. Born in 1866, he died in 1949.
Burleigh was born into the tumultuous
times that would follow a nation extracting itself from the throes of the Civil War
and turning itself toward the rebuilding
process. These were the events that began
to shape Burleigh for his purpose in life.
Burleigh was born on the cusp of the ratification of the 14th Amendment and the 1866
Civil Rights Act, which granted citizenship
and the same rights enjoyed by white citizens
to all male persons in the U.S. “without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude.”
The U.S. Census of 1860 estimated Erie’s
population at 49,432, with a Negro population of 181; the 1870 census estimated Erie’s
population at 65,973, with a Negro population of 389. In 1880, Erie’s population was
74,688, with a Negro population of 332.
With so few African-Americans in
Erie, Burleigh established social relationships with many of the families residing
within the city, including the Lawrences.
The Lawrence Family
Emma Gertrude Lawrence, the matriarch of the Lawrence family, was born
around 1859. Burleigh had a relationship
with Lawrence’s sons, even though Burleigh
was 15 years older than Earl Lawrence and
17 years older than Charles Lawrence. On
Burleigh’s visits to his hometown for concerts, he would contact the Lawrences to
arrange a meeting to talk about his exploits
and music because Burleigh and Earl Lawrence both wrote and performed music.
Burleigh often made the Lawrence
home his headquarters when he visited
Erie. At the time, Negro spirituals, in particular, were popular, and that popularity may have prompted Burleigh and
35 | L A K E E R I E L I F E S T Y L E / / w w w . l a k e e r i e l i f e s t y l e . c o m
At the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Paul in Erie,
a stained glass window features words and
music written by Harry T. Burleigh. FILE PHOTO/
ERIE TIMES-NEWS