Michigan Home Where Malcolm X Once Lived Added To National Register Of Historic Places
The Michigan house where civil rights icon Malcolm X once lived has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Once slated for demolition, the former Nation of Islam minister lived in the house in Inkster, a middle and working class suburb that sits about 25 minutes west of Detroit in 1952 with his family after serving a prison sentence in Massachusetts for burglary. It was there that he began to transform his life, according to The Detroit News. According to his autobiography, which he penned along with author Alex Haley, he spent this time working as a furniture salesman and as the Ford Motor Company, but he left that job to dedicate his time to the Nation of Islam.
His brother, Wilfred Little, was a member at the NOI’s Temple No. 1 in Detroit where the future civil rights leader, born Malcolm Little in 1925, later served as an assistant minister, MLive.com reported.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Property must be associated with events, activities, or developments that were important in the past to be eligible for a National Registry listing.
"People and places in Michigan played important roles in the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century," Michigan’s State Historic Preservation Officer Mark Rodman stated. "We are honored to join the city of Inkster in celebrating one of those roles with the listing of this home."
Aaron Sims, who has spearheaded efforts to save the once-abandoned house, told Detroit News that big plans are in the works.
"We are working hard toward rehabilitating and renovating the Malcolm X house, with the goal of transforming the home into a museum that will showcase Malcolm’s life history, with special focus on his human and civil rights activism, as well as his relationship to the city of Inkster, which he referenced in one of his final speeches,” said Sims, an Inkster resident and executive director of Project We Hope, Dream & Believe.
The organization, which was reportedly awarded a $400,000 grant in 2021 to restore the home, purchased adjacent lots to construct a community center, as well as a job training and youth tutoring site.
Malcolm X, born in Omaha, Neb., relocated with his family to several places in his early life before moving to Michigan. He resided in Lansing, East Lansing and Mason, Mich., before moving to Boston and New York as a teenager. It was there that the rest of his story began to take shape, including the days he spent as a hustler in the streets of Harlem, his prison term, his conversion to Islam and leadership with the Nation of Islam and subsequent split with the group, his life after the split, and assassination in 1965 at the age of 39.
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