LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Greenwood Cemetery in Louisville is home to nearly 900 graves, including more than 800 predominantly African American veterans. But after several decades without ownership and regular maintenance, the cemetery has deteriorated to a state of despair and neglect.

Greenwood Cemetery Community Partners and the National Association of Black Veterans are working to change that with the motto, "Every person deserves dignity in death as well as life."

At Greenwood Cemetery, hundreds of headstones are displaced, knocked-over, sunken and even buried.

“It just tore me up,” said Jeff Shontz, president of Greenwood Cemetery Community Partners . “I told my wife that it’s very simple; I’m going to be out there every weekend.”

Shontz said Greenwood Cemetery was without ownershi

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