by
Malcolm X's house in Inkster, where the civil rights leader and Muslim minister lived in the early 1950s, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) announced Tuesday.
Malcom X
“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,” Project We Hope, Dream & Believe Executive Director Aaron Sims said in a statement.
Born Malcolm Little in 1925 in Omaha, Neb., his family moved around during his childhood before coming to Michigan. He lived in the Lansing area before moving to Boston and New York while he was in his teens. Involved in illicit activities, the law caught up with him and in 1946, he was sentenced in Massachusetts to 10 years in prison for larceny and breaking and entering.
While in prison, he educated himself and joined the Nation of Islam, an unorthodox Islamic movement founded in Detroit. He also corresponded regularly with Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the sect.
His older brother Wilfred was already involved in the Nation of Islam's Temple No. 1 in Detroit. When Malcolm X was released from prison, he returned to Michigan and lived with Wilfred and his family in the Inkster home, located on Williams Street near Annapolis Avenue, in 1952-53.
In the 1960s he became disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad and embraced Sunni Islam and the civil rights movement. He became known as "el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz."
Tensions with the Nation grew and he received death threats. On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City at age 39.
Three Nation of Islam members were convicted and given life sentences. Late last year, two of the convictions were vacated after it was proven that the FBI and New York Police withheld evidence that could have led to acquittal. The third conviction, of Mujahid Abdul Halim, stands.
The Inkster home, vacant for several years, remains largely intact as it was in the early 1950s when the Littles lived there, according a press release from the MEDC. Malcolm X lived in a second-floor bedroom. The MEDC noted that few of the places Malcolm X resided in his life remain standing.
"A key aspect of the National Register program is to document and honor places that are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history,” Michigan’s State Historic Preservation Officer Mark A. Rodman said in a statement. “People and places in Michigan played important roles in the Civil Rights movement of the mid-20th century. We are honored to join the city of Inkster in celebrating one of those roles with the listing of this home.”
Dr. Tareq A. Ramadan, Wayne State University professor and Project We Hope, Dream & Believe project manager, said:
“We have also partnered with Wayne State University’s Anthropology Department to conduct archaeological excavations around the home which, we hope, will provide further clues about what life was like in the neighborhood Malcolm lived in between 1952 and 1953.”
