Harry T. Burleigh was a great musician and composer during the late 19th/early 20th century. He helped to preserve many of the songs of the African-American people that had been passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth but were not set down of paper. One of the songs he wrote down was "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", which had been a spiritual song during slavery days. Mr. Burleigh was born in Erie and later moved to New York City and became a respected church musician there.

He was friends with some of the great composers of the era, including Dvorak, whom he influenced to use folk melodies in his compositions.

Without Mr. Burleigh, no doubt many of the great songs of the African-American people would have been lost to history. That is why I think he should be in the first class of the Erie Hall of Fame.

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