The Metro: Malcolm X’s Inkster home receives Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation

Malcolm X is known for his activism for civil rights, including championing Black empowerment along with being a spokesman for the Nation of Islam. A lot of Malcolm’s life was rooted in Michigan, specifically in Lansing and Inkster. 

Wayne State University’s Department of Anthropology has been working to restore the former Inkster home of the civil rights leader since 2021, and the project was recently honored with the Governor’s Awards for Historic Preservation. The award honors preservation projects in Michigan that show the positive impact preservation can have on communities. 

Tareq Ramadan, WSU Anthropology Professor and project manager of the nonprofit, Project We Hope Dream & Believe, joined The Metro on Monday to discuss the restoration project.

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From a young age, Ramadan was deeply moved by Malcolm X’s empowering narrative, he says. This connection was strengthened when he discovered that Malcolm had lived in Inkster, an area Ramadan was intimately familiar with.

“He was a self-proclaimed Detroiter, and in one of the last speeches he gave before he was killed, a week before, he said, ‘I’m from Detroit. I used to live out here in Inkster.'” Ramadan said. “So he harkens back this time to Inkster, and it happens at the tail end of his life. But in many ways, it brings Malcolm’s kind of full circle back to a place that we can really call his hometown in many ways.”

Ramadan says Malcolm’s brother, Wilfred Little, first lived in Inkster, where Malcolm later came to live in August 1952.

“It was a home in a community of mostly working-class African Americans. And there were some Black Muslims who were living in the area. These were adherents to the nation of Islam,” Ramadan said. “And I sort of imagine that those were issues that I think helped to motivate Wilfred to pick Inkster. And, of course, the blatant racism that was so widespread in metro Detroit, especially in places like Dearborn, which Malcolm himself talks about.”

Ramadan envisions this project as a catalyst for a new sense of pride among Detroiters. It not only brings to light an essential era of Malcolm’s life, but also the power of community collaboration. 

Use the media player above to hear the full interview with Ramadan.

More headlines from The Metro on May 13, 2024:

• For the first time in 40 years, the city of Highland Park’s Fire Department is fully staffed. For Highland Park and its residents, the news is significant — not just for what it means for the community, but also for what it says about recovery efforts in the city. Highland Park Fire Chief Erik Hollowell joined the show to discuss the increase in staffing.
• Pickleball has taken over many metro Detroit parks as the sport gains more and more popularity, and now there’s a new complex dedicated solely to pickleball in Warren: Bash Pickleball Club. The club’s Co-owner Sam Briko and head coach Nick Hernandez joined the show to share more about it.
• This week, Detroit News Restaurant Critic Melody Baetens spoke with WDET’s Ryan Patrick Hooper about the power of pop-ups in metro Detroit and a new spot called Leña in Brush Park.
• A Detroit-based real estate developer is building 23 single-family homes on Fischer Street near Kercheval, in Detroit’s East English Village neighborhoods. WDET’s Bre’Anna Tinsley spoke with developer Jed Howbert about the project.

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