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Pine Barons honor grave sites of Civil War veterans

Pine Barons honor fallen Black soldiers from the Civil War

In Camden, New Jersey, a barbershop chapter serves its community with songs and rakes.

Pine Barons at Dempsey Butler Cemetery

Prior to raising their voices in song, the Cherry Hill (New Jersey) Pine Barons picked up their rakes and got to work. On January 17th, Martin Luther King Day, a dozen members of the award-winning barbershop chorus honored fallen black soldiers from the Civil War at the Dempsey Butler Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey.

Singers volunteered to tidy-up the gravesites at the historic cemetery. In frigid weather, they raked debris and, true to the barbershop tradition, sang as they worked. Following their labors, the chorus gathered at the gravesite of Dempsey Butler, the cemetery’s founder, and sang the National Anthem and "God Bless America." Their efforts were greatly appreciated by the Reverend Floyd White III of the Woodland Avenue Presbyterian Church in Camden, who invited the chorus to participate in the memorial ceremony.