Malcolm X’s Boston home is a national landmark. Now his family is trying to restore it.
By Laura Haefeli
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BOSTON (WBZ) — Malcolm X was a significant leader in the civil rights movement in the 1960’s, advocating for the Black community and working among leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis. But, before that, he lived on an unassuming street in Boston.
“He was a tween in Roxbury when he came here. He lived here on the top floor,” Rodnell Collins, the nephew of Malcolm X, said outside the three-story home on Dale Street in Roxbury.
Collins’ mother Ella also lived in the house when Malcolm X was there, from 1941 to 1944. In the 1990’s it was nearly sold, saved in part by Boston Mayor Tom Menino who turned it into a national landmark.
“It’s the people’s house. It’s everybody’s house,” Collins told WBZ-TV.
He plans to turn it into a fully functioning home for graduate students to live and learn inside the same walls Malcolm X did.
But to restore the site, they need to raise $4.5 million to finish it by the end of 2025. When the doors open, it will be the first time the public will be able to go inside Malcolm X’s childhood home.
“The interior and exterior. Myself, my wife, and her family have helped contribute some funds to bring this house back up to speed,” Collins said.
Roxbury residents like Marius, who didn’t share his last name, walk in the home’s shadow daily. He’s proud of its presence on Dale Street, but discouraged by what he sees.
“It should be taken way better care than this. Malcolm X was a very powerful Black person,” Marius said. “We should be taking care of his things he left. “
The Collins family, with help from donations and federal and state grants, are fixing the roof, garage and making sure it’s environmentally friendly.
“It’s something Malcolm was about, conservation of the environment,” Collins said.
Despite the heavy lifting, Collins, who is in charge of the project, says the work is worth doing.
“It makes me think of my uncle. He believed in the possibilities,” said Collins.
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