Every morning Karen Gamble flips on the lights in the old worship hall and glances to her left at a black banner reading: “Who is the most famous person from Omaha, NE?” She turns to her right in this room of old photos and yellowing newspaper clippings and locks eyes with a portrait of a man staring behind horn-rimmed glasses, pressing a finger to his temple. “Good morning, Malcolm,” says the secretary of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation. Since 1971, the foundation has existed to honor Malcolm X, born in Omaha in 1925 as Malcolm Little.
Though the Civil Rights icon left as a toddler, generations have dreamed of turning his former childhood home in the rolling hills north of Adams Park into a Civil Rights destination. Despite a half-century of planning, penny pinching, fundraising and bartering, the 17 acres in North Omaha remain mostly undeveloped. The organization didn’t have a visitors’ center until the Jehovah’s Witnesses next door left and followers of the Civil Rights icon and Islamic leader bought it in 2010.
But the future of preserving Malcolm X’s legacy in Omaha looks brighter now than it has in decades, kick-started by a $20 million state grant meant to build a museum and renovate the visitors’ center. Leaders hope the long awaited changes will attract tourists, create jobs and inspire the community. “We have a big job to do,” said executive director JoAnna LeFlore-Ejike.
“Sometimes a big job takes a long time to build the right team, to bu.