Image via Timothy Salmon

By Niles Garrison, Features Editor

The development of Black men is important to Morehouse College, and the empowerment of the future generation is particularly important to one of its students. DaQuan Brown, a senior Education major with a minor in Communications, is the author of the new children’s book “Just Like You!: ABC EDITION.” 

The book is designed to empower Black boys to believe they can achieve anything that they set their minds to.

“I have always had this idea in my notes of something I wanted to accomplish,” Brown said. “Not necessarily for the money but I could feel like I could make a dope children’s book for my community so we can have that inclusiveness and Black male presence in a children’s book.”

As a child, Brown wrote his own superhero stories; he maintained his love for writing— transitioning into screenwriting as he got older.

His family also has strong ties to writing and the creative arts. His mother is a published poet while his grandfather also published a children’s book. Brown has writing in his blood. 

“Just Like You!” started as an idea for a final project. Brown’s Developmental Literacy class tasked him with making a rough draft of a children’s book. This draft would eventually catch the eye of a publisher.

“I took it to the next level,” Brown said. “I wrote the children’s book, and had one of my friends do the illustrations for it. I had a publisher that liked my book and strongly suggested for me to work with them to get it published.”

Brown was unable to get it published initially; however, he never lost sight of his goal. He researched self-publishing and achieved his dream by posting his book on Amazon. 

Brown’s main focus for his book was inclusivity. As you flip the pages, the reader sees a Black boy with occupations corresponding to the beginning of the first letter of the word. Countering stereotypes, the book does not feature athletes or hip-hop artists. 

“That was intentional,” Brown said. “I want Black boys to see different things they can do besides playing sports or being entertainers. Not a lot of people know they can be doctors or engineers and I wanted to bring that faith that you can be whatever you want.”

Growing up on the Eastside of Atlanta, Brown was inspired by his community. 

“Anything I do in this world is catered to my community,” Brown said. “I want to have that presence in my community and just be that leader, innovator, and essentially be the neighborhood hero one day.”

Being a leader is important to Brown. In recent years, a number of his fellow peers died of gang violence and suicide. These unfortunate events changed his mindset and helped him realize he wanted to make a change. 

“I just kept thinking to myself, what I can do, what I can do now, what I can do later,” Brown said. “I just thought to myself, nobody’s really going to care about the community the way I do. I have the ability to do something, create some type of change.”

“Just Like You!: ABC EDITION” by DaQuan Brown can be found on Amazon.

Copy Edited by Editor-in-Chief, Colin Royal