Historic Boston Inc., a nonprofit redeveloper of historic buildings, yesterday launched a campaign to preserve and re-use the 1874 Malcolm X-Ella Little-Collins House, the last known surviving residence of the black civil rights activist and the family of his older half-sister, Ella Little-Collins.

Historic Boston Inc. will raise $750,000 to restore and establish a new use, possibly as housing for graduate students for a Boston area college or university, over the next year.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation yesterday joined Historic Boston Inc., Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Malcolm X’s nephew Rodnell Collins, and scores of guests in front of the home, at 72 Dale St., in Roxbury, announcing that it was naming the Malcolm X-Ella Little-Collins House to its 2012 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.  

The home, located near a park now named for Malcolm X, was built in 1874 and has been vacant for several years and underused for decades. Malcolm X lived there with his sister and her husband and was in and out of trouble with the law before joining the Nation of Islam while in jail in the 1940s.

“It’s the only remaining residence of Malcolm Little from his Boston years,” Kathy Kottaridis, executive director of Historic Boston Inc, said in a statement. “That represents the importance of transformation and endurance on the part of a human being.”

The home will be restored to its 1941-’47-era condition, as money is raised and a new, sustainable use is sought.