A nondescript white house sits at 4336 Williams Street in the small suburb of Inkster.
It looks nothing out of the ordinary and most people would pass it by. But in the early 1950s, it was home to civil rights leader Malcolm X and his brother.
The house has long sat vacant and nearly faced demolition. But Inkster resident Aaron Sims and his team at nonprofit Project We Hope, Dream and Believe have been repairing and restoring it since 2019.
In 2022, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its cultural significance and, earlier this year, the state of Michigan awarded Project We Hope, Dream and Believe $80,000 to rehabilitate and conduct archaeological documentation on the residence.
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His family moved around several times throughout his childhood before settling in Michigan, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. They resided in Lansing, East Lansing, and Mason before moving to Boston and New York City when he was a teenager. When Malcolm was just six years old, his father died and his oldest brother Wilfred Little took on a largely paternal role.
After serving time in various Massachusetts prisons for burglary from 1946 to 1952, Malcolm stayed at Wilfred’s house in Inkster for about a year before moving to Philadelphia and later to New York City. That’s when he became heavily involved in the Nation of Islam temple in Detroit.
In the 1960s, Malcolm became an influential figure in the civil rights movement, often having different viewpoints from fellow leader Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1965, Malcolm was assassinated in New York City.
Sims said that the nonprofit plans to open the Malcolm X House next year as a museum, along with a vocational technical center next door for teens and adults.
The reveal of the plans, he said, will likely coincide with the anniversary of what would have been Malcolm’s 100th birthday on May 19, 2025.
“It’s a part of history when you look back and you see Malcolm and the things that he stood for,” Sims said about the house. “One thing that I love about Malcolm is he said that if he could change, anybody could change. Your surroundings don’t make you, you make your surroundings.”