LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville's Greenwood Cemetery is the historic resting place for many African Americans in the city.
It has long been a concern for the loved ones buried there, and the decades-long effort to keep it maintained respectfully.
The metro councilmember for the area, Phillip Baker, and a group of veterans, have asked the city to start maintaining Greenwood.
The west Louisville cemetery was created in 1903 and is 120 years old.
It become known as a prominent African American resting place, especially for Black war veterans.
It's fallen into disrepair with overgrown weeds and littered with trash.
Currently, the National Association of Black Veterans tries to keep the place clean all by themselves.
"We are starting to get kids come over there, saying 'what can we do to help," Mike King, president of the Greenwood Cemetery Community Partners, said. "But we don't have enough equipment for everyone, rakes and stuff; so sometimes they come over but we can't have them help us because we don't have the tools for them, but it's become a community like environment."
Shayla Brown, a Louisville native, said her brother was buried at Greenwood in 1985.
An archeologist told her it would be impossible to find his gravesite due to the conditions of the cemetery.
Their goal is for the city's Parks and Recreation to take control of the grounds and maintain it the way they would a park.
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