By Ken Coleman, Michigan Advance

The Inkster home where civil rights leader Malcolm X once lived during 1952 and 1953 has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC).

“People and places in Michigan played important roles in the Civil Rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. We are honored to join the city of Inkster in celebrating one of those roles with the listing of this home,” said Mark A. Rodman, Michigan’s state historic preservation officer.

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in 1925 in Omaha, Neb. His family relocated several times throughout his childhood before settling in Michigan. He lived in Lansing, East Lansing and Mason before moving to Boston and New York City in his teens. 

Malcolm’s time on the East Coast led to trouble with the law, and ultimately ended with incarceration in 1946. Inspired by a fellow inmate and several members of his family, Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam, an Islamic movement and organization operating within a Black Nationalist framework that was founded in Detroit in 1930. He went on to play a key, and often provocative, role in the Civil Rights and racial justice movements of the 1950s and 1960s before he was assassinated in New York City in February 1965.

Under the leadership of Project We Hope, Dream & Believe, the house is being transformed into a museum that will focus on the life and significance of Malcolm X, advocacy, and as a youth learning center. The effort was recently aided by a $380,000 grant from the National Park Service African American Civil Rights program.

“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 Aaron Sims, Project We Hope, Dream & Believe executive director.

To be considered for listing in the National Register, a property must generally be at least 50 years old and be tied to major historical events or trends, according to Rodman.

In 1991, a public school in Detroit was named in Malcolm X’s honor. In Lansing, a section of Main Street was renamed for him and there is a historical marker for his former home on what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.