The Green Lawn Cemetery in Chester Township is the final resting place for many African-American veterans, but until recently, you wouldn’t know it.

Graves had become overgrown with brush, and weeds were as tall as people.

Now the neglected cemetery is being restored by local residents, reports TaRhonda Thomas for 6abc.

Volunteers found the graves of more than 300 veterans.

The condition of the cemetery was first disclosed in a 2020 documentary by Twyla Simpkins.

“People were very angry, annoyed because of how the cemetery currently was,” she said.

Green Lawn was built in 1907 when African Americans weren’t permitted to be buried within the city limits of Chester.  

The cemetery was set up as a corporation, but the corporation members have all died, so there’s no one left to care for the property.

The decaying property hid the headstones of heroes who had fought in the Civil War and Buffalo Soldiers, Black soldiers who helped settle the West.

“I think what’s heartbreaking is to see that they’re still not acknowledged,” said one of the volunteers, State Rep. Carol Kazeem of the 159th District.

It’s why Friends of Green Lawn formed: to maintain the cemetery and, hopefully, eventually own it.

Find out more about this continuous labor of love at 6abc.