Boston
The two-week archaeological dig began Tuesday outside a two-and-a-half story home that was built in 1874 in Boston’s historically black Roxbury neighborhood.
City Archaeologist Joseph Bagley said his office chose to dig up the site because it’s likely that work will be needed soon to shore up the foundation of the vacant, run-down structure.
“This is kind of a now-or-never dig,” he said. “If we don’t do this, the site will be destroyed. We can’t afford to wait.”
Among Tuesday’s early finds was a large piece of fine porcelain that Bagley says was likely part of a dish set owned by the family of Malcolm X’s sister, which still owns the house.
“We’re literally just scratching the surface,” Bagley said as he and volunteers used a sifter to carefully pore over mounds of rubble.
Bagley said once the initial rubble is cleared, a ground-penetrating radar survey will be used to determine the best locations to dig. Major excavation work is expected to dig up to four feet into the ground. The site will be open to the public throughout to observe the work.
“We don’t actually go in looking for anything,” Bagley said. “It’s more like we’re looking for anything that might tell us something about the people that lived here.”
Rodnell Collins, a nephew of Malcolm X who lived with him in the house, hopes the survey can raise public awareness of his family’s deep roots in Boston. He’s been working for years to renovate the dilapidated structure for public tours and other uses.
The former Malcolm Little was a teenager in the 1940s when he lived with his sister Ella Little-Collins and her family at 72 Dale St.
The house was designated a city landmark in 1998 because it’s the only known dwelling from the outspoken activist’s formative years in Boston still standing.
“No physical move in my life has been more pivotal or profound in its repercussions,” Malcolm X wrote in his autobiography about his time in Boston.