Malcolm X museum to be built in Omaha
The Malcolm X Memorial Foundation has been awarded a $20 million grant to build a museum and cultural education center honoring the civil rights activist in North Omaha.
The museum will be built on an 18-acre property where X’s family home once stood. The space consists mostly of land, gardens, and a small former church used as the headquarters for the foundation. The plan for the property includes the new museum facility and a renovation of the current outdoor amphitheater and community gardens.
Tourism to the site is increasing, with around 3,400 visitors in 2021 and an attendance of 2,000 at an outdoor celebration of Juneteenth. The foundation hopes to continue to grow tourism. “We really want to be a destination,” JoAnna LeFlore-Ejike, executive director of the foundation stated, “Our hope is to position Omaha in a way where people are coming specifically to see this.”
The grant comes after X was voted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 2022. His induction ceremony is set for May 22. Lincoln sculptor Nathan Murray produced a memorial bust that will be displayed in the State Capitol along with the 26 other members of the Nebraska Hall of Fame.
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. Less than two years after his birth, his family fled Omaha because of threats from the Klu Klux Klan. A converted Muslim, Malcolm X was a key figure in the growth of the Nation of Islam, and his faith remained an integral part of his identity even after his split from the group.
Malcolm X criticized the mainstream civil rights movement and leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., urging Black Americans to engage in self-defense and economic self-reliance. He was assassinated in 1965. X’s ideas and martyrdom contributed to the development of the ideology of Black nationalism and the Black Power Movement.
Speaking about X and the future of the museum in Omaha, LeFlore-Ejike said, “Malcolm has inspired all walks of life throughout the globe. This is going to bring a lot of life to the Black experience, historically, in Omaha.”
By Aubrey Benton