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Inspired Life

A Virginia teen saw a historic black cemetery in disrepair. He recruited his fellow Boy Scouts to restore it.

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August 15, 2019 at 5:46 p.m. EDT
Griffin Burchard, at the podium, worked for months to restore the historic Frederick Douglass cemetery in Alexandria, Va. Burchard, 16, erected a marker for Douglass, quoting the abolitionist: “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” (Hannah Natanson/The Washington Post)

Griffin Burchard never forgot the dilapidated Virginia cemetery named after one of the most famous African Americans of the 19th century.

Burchard first spotted Douglass Memorial Cemetery — named for orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass — while on a service trip with his Boy Scout troop about three years ago. The Scouts were supposed to be removing faded wreaths from pristine rows of graves inside the well-maintained Alexandria National Cemetery.