Malcolm X and Ella Little-Collins House

Her own savings for Mecca went to her brother, and then his funeral and his debts came to her too.

Collection: Boston: More Stories · USA · Open in OpenStreetMap

The house at 72 Dale Street · BakedintheHole, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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How the story begins

Malcolm X went to Mecca on money his sister had been saving to go there herself. That was in 1964, when he had just left the Nation of Islam. He went to Ella Little-Collins, who dealt in real estate and owned this house. They talked nearly all night in her living room. In his autobiography he wrote, "She told me there was no question about it; it was more important that I go." He wrote elsewhere that he had to borrow the money.

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Visiting

72 Dale Street, Roxbury, Boston. Private house, not open to the public: see it from the pavement only. In August 2024 the owner was raising money for restoration; I found no 2026 update.