INKSTER, Mich. (WXYZ) — Nonprofit organizations, educators and community members are trying to restore Malcolm X’s former home, which sits on Williams Street in Inkster.
“It just makes me feels so good that we’re bringing our history to light that people who lived here their whole lives didn’t know it was here,” Inkster resident Usheil Floyd said.
On Friday, Floyd came out to support a group of Wayne State University professors and students who were excavating around the Malcolm X house. Malcolm X lived in Inkster with his brother and sister-in-law back in the 1950s.
“It’s history, living history. What we’re doing is like living history,” Floyd said.
Krysta Ryzewski is an anthropology professor at Wayne State University. She led the excavation team that was looking for artifacts around the house.
“The artifacts that we’re looking for here help us piece together missing facts about what life was like for Malcolm X and his family during the time he lived here in the 50s,” Ryzewski said.
The house is on the National Register of Historic Places. There’s an effort to turn the house into a museum, which will house some of the artifacts Ryzewski’s teams finds.
This whole project is all because of the efforts of Aaron Sims, the founder of the nonprofit organization Project We Hope Dream & Believe.
“We did the research. We looked and we found the FBI documents stating that Malcolm X resided at 4436 Williams Street… for probably about eight years, we fought to save the house from being demolished,” Sims said.
In addition to the museum, Sims and his team hope to add a community center next door. The goal is to have everything completed by August of 2024.
Floyd says she’s very excited for the museum and community center to open.
“When the kids come, they learn about the past, but they’re working on their future,” Floyd said.
