- The Malcolm X Memorial Foundation plans a full campus in North Omaha featuring a museum, cultural center, hotel, affordable housing, and a financial incubator.
- The $40M cultural center and museum phase has $20M secured from the Nebraska State Department of Economic Development
- Organizers plan to break ground in 2027 and complete the project by 2030,
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Inside Malcolm X's childhood home in North Omaha, the vision for a sweeping new cultural campus is taking shape. The Malcolm X Memorial Foundation is developing a multi-phase project organizers hope will become a global visitor destination that keeps his legacy alive.
The full project is estimated to cost between $100 million and $120 million and will include affordable housing, a financial incubator offering business support, and a hotel.
Phase 2 of the campus which focuses on a cultural center and museum will cost $40 million. Of that, $20 million comes from the Nebraska State Department of Economic Development. The remainder will come from a capital campaign that started locally and is expanding nationally.
JoAnna LeFlore-Eijke, executive director of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation, said she wants the campus to become a must-see destination.
"When your friends and family come to visit, you'd say the zoo, you'd say Lauritzen Gardens, you say wherever you want to say, but make sure you add the Malcolm X Foundation," LeFlore-Eijke said.
Organizers say everything about the space is intentional from the stairs to the trees.
Nkrumah Freeman of the Malcolm X Foundation explained the symbolism behind the design.
"The stairs represent the people that came to hear Malcolm speak. The Five Stairs, is the Five, represents the Five Pillars of Islam that Malcolm followed," Freeman said.
Freeman also spoke to the broader significance of the project for the Black community.
"I think this is, like, one of the last hooks us as a black community really have to represent something at a mass level like this, and, uh, we gotta we gotta hit a home run with it," Freeman said.
Former politician Brenda Council connected the project to Malcolm X's own evolving worldview.
"In his final days, globalization of the black experience was one of the core principles that Malcolm advocated," Council said.
Preston Love Jr., who said he lived in Atlanta during the planning for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, hopes the project will draw people in to learn about the history of North Omaha.
"It is tremendous, and I hope that the entire state, we can put aside our politics and embrace something that is great for the state economically and otherwise," Love said.
Omaha Mayor Ewing also voiced support for the project.
"Let's make this happen. This is about the legacy of Malcolm X. But it's also about the legacy of Omaha, Nebraska," Ewing said.
Organizers plan to break ground in 2027 and complete the project by 2030.
