These middle schoolers spent a week touring Underground Railroad sites in Camden and Lawnside — and taking photographs of them

Yolanda Romero, on the Mount Peace Cemetery Association board, stakes to campers as they visit the cemetery during the Underground Railroad Camp in Lawnside Thursday, Jun. 26, 2025. The middle school students worked with Camden photographer Erik James Montgomery taking their own pictures on visits to railroad and historic sites in Lawnside.

As soon as the church van pulled into Mount Peace Cemetery in Lawnside, London Artis recognized a familiar name: her great-grandfather’s.

Both were surprised to discover it was the final resting place for Roger Artis, who died in 1961. He is buried alongside his wife, Roberta.

“I was like, `Wow, I think I know him,’” said London, of Blackwood, a rising eighth grader. “I feel proud he’s somewhere he’s honored.”

The teenager and her brother, 12, took pictures of the headstone and then continued their walk through the sprawling cemetery, established in 1902 as a resting place for Black Civil War veterans, formerly enslaved people, and those who could not be buried in whites-only cemeteries.

Campers Jayvon Johnson (left), 12, of Sicklerville and Luke Johnson (right), 13, of Voorhees, photograph each other during the Underground Railroad Camp in Lawnside last week.

The two siblings, along with eight others, spent a week touring sites in Camden and Lawnside, a 1.5-square-mile, historically African American community listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

They learned about historic sites like the cemetery, churches, and slave auction block sites in Camden where historians say more than 800 people were sold.

A first-of-its kind camp is teaching kids in South Jersey about the Underground Railroad

This year’s Underground Railroad Camp, sponsored by the Lawnside Historical Society, encouraged participants to document their experiences through photography.

Self-taught fine art photographer Erik James Montgomery equipped each camper with a digital camera and taught the kids how to capture what they saw. Camp directors Jackie Bentley and E. Muneerah Higgs, both educators, provided history lessons.

Campers take photographs at Mount Peace Cemetery during the Underground Railroad camp in Lawnside last week. From left are: Nasir Lewis, 12, of Medford; Joel Kurtz, 11, of Haddon Heights: Nailah Ikhlas, 11, of Willingboro: and Tsahai Qadir, 11, of Lawnside. The middle school students worked with Camden photographer Erik James Montgomery taking their own pictures on visits to railroad and historic sites in Lawnside.

The campers learned basic digital photography skills, lighting, angles, and settings. Montgomery gave them tips such as crouching down to get a different perspective.

“Everywhere we went to, they were learning how to document that area,” Montgomery said.

With cameras strapped around their necks, the campers traipsed through a section of the cemetery known as Soldier’s Row. Veterans of the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and Vietnam also are buried in Mount Peace.

Medal of Honor recipient John H. Lawson, who refused to give up his station aboard the USS Harford, is among the most famous of the 77 Civil War veterans interred there.

Tsahai Qadir, 11, of Lawnside, carefully stopped near ground level to photograph a grave marker tucked in a grassy area. She turned the camera from portrait view to landscape.

“Oh, that’s a great shot!” Montgomery said.

Yolanda Romero, a member of the Mount Peace Cemetery Association, advised the group to look for American flags to locate other veterans’ graves. The inscription on some markers was no longer legible.

During the Civil War, the veterans served in regiments on the East Coast, cemetery officials say. Their families sent their remains to Lawnside for burial because they were not permitted in white cemeteries.

That changed in 1948, when President Harry Truman desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces, ending the military’s practice of burials based on race in national cemeteries, including Arlington National Cemetery.

“Think about that. That’s a long time to not be buried in a veterans cemetery,” Romero told the group.

The historical society, which seeks to preserve Lawnside’s storied past, began holding the first-of-its kind camp in 2022 for sixth through eighth graders. This was the first year the camp focused on photography.

“I think it’s really cool,” said Nasir Lewis, 12, of Medford, a rising eighth grader. “It shows how far we’ve come.”

Located 13 miles southeast of Philadelphia, Lawnside was settled before the Civil War as “Snow Hill,” a haven for free Black people and runaways on land purchased by abolitionists. Later renamed Lawnside, it was incorporated as the first all-Black municipality north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Montgomery, who operates the nonprofit EJM Foundation, specializes in photographic public art. He wanted the campers to learn more about African American culture through the camera lens.

At the slave marker sites, he told the campers to first sit with their eyes closed and consider the plight of those brought to America against their will. Then they took photographs.

“Sometimes, once you can empathize with a certain situation, your level of understanding and creativity will go to a deeper level,” he said.

The campers also visited Mount Pisgah A.M.E. Church, which was organized in 1792. It is the second-oldest A.M.E. church in New Jersey and was where the Rev. Jarena Lee became the first woman in the denomination allowed to preach.

Apps and maps bring the Underground Railroad to life for students in this South Jersey town

Inside the sanctuary, they photographed the church’s stained glass windows. London Artis said seeing the windows made her feel “fulfilled.”

“The windows just spoke to me,” she said.

The campers also walked to the nearby Peter Mott House, built around 1845 by Mott, a free man and a preacher who provided refuge for enslaved people who escaped.

During history lessons at Grace Temple Baptist Church taught by Higgs and Bentley, the campers also wrote essays about what they learned.

“We assure you that we will never let this history be erased,” Higgs said. “This history is American history.”

The five-day camp wrapped up with a closing ceremony and a photo exhibit of the campers’ work. They explained why they selected their favorite photo and answered the question “What gives you Black joy?”

“This history was important for us to learn so we learn about our ancestors and what happened to them,” said Joel Kurtz, 11, of Haddon Heights, a rising sixth grader.

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