A Las Cruces cemetery where more than 65 African Americans are buried has become a final resting place for trash and overrun weeds.
The NAACP's Dona Ana County branch is asking city and community leaders for help in cleaning and renovating the neglected graveyard.
Improvements to the cemetery could add up to as much as $100,000.
The NAACP has started a fundraising campaign and is proposing the two-acre burial ground become a historical landmark.
Records show burials at the cemetery date back to 1940 and the last one was in 2001.
At one time, the cemetery was the only place in Las Cruces that African Americans could be buried because of segregation laws.
___
Information from: Las Cruces Sun-News, http://www.lcsun-news.com
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.