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The Malcolm X Memorial Foundation (MXMF) was created in 1971 as a way to honor the birth site of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz in Omaha and continue his human rights legacy. Through educational programming, community events, the birth site memorial and grounds, and civic engagement trainings, MXMF envisions an empowered community thriving in equity. Spurred by one of the foundation’s more recent accomplishments, securing Malcolm X’s place in the Nebraska Hall of Fame, MXMF partnered with Emspace + Lovgren to grow awareness of this significant milestone, and of the foundation in general, at a local and national scale. The achievement presented an extraordinary communications opportunity to leverage, as only one person is inducted to the Hall of Fame every five years, and Malcolm X would be the first Black person inducted.
In addition to meetings with MXMF’s executive director, our research included facilitating a series of four focus groups — with elected officials; neighborhood associations, faith community and educators; MXMF board members and volunteers; and local business owners — to gain a deeper understanding of MXMF’s presence in the community; learn more about current knowledge and gaps around the Hall of Fame honor; identify opportunities to leverage each group’s influence to promote the Hall of Fame induction; and define our target audiences. We also distributed a general community survey to collect even more data about perceptions of MXMF.
The feedback revealed that despite its long history, many Omahans are unaware of MXMF’s existence or its breadth of programming. We recognized a clear opportunity to position MXMF as a place that’s making history, not just teaching it, and the Hall of Fame induction also gave us a chance to bring light to the truth about Malcolm X and his values, as he’s often a misrepresented figure in Nebraska history.
Over the course of seven months, we delivered a strategic communications plan for the organization to execute and crafted press releases and identified media opportunities to highlight MXMF ahead of the induction ceremony. As other organizational news was announced, such as Malcolm X’s 99th birthday celebration, we included messaging about the induction to ensure it was included in the larger MXMF story. We also pitched a feature on a Nebraska-based ceramicist creating the mold for the bronze bust of Malcolm X for Nebraska’s capitol.
Media coverage of the Hall of Fame induction event and birthday celebration far exceeded expectations, resulting in regional and national coverage.
