Byron Brooks Finds Purpose in Activism

Byron Brooks is not one to sit around, recounting injustices and wait for someone else to do something about it. The 25-year old Ferris State University student is more than willing to be a catalyst for change in society himself. Brooks was raised in Detroit by his great-grandparents, as his mother was serving a prison sentence when he was born. He credits his great-grandparents with instilling in him an attitude of service to others.

A licensed minister of the Gospel through his home church, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Brooks is currently in his third year of ministry. He is using that role to make connections between the church and the community around him, which he says is severely lacking in resources and is often overlooked. He experienced this first-hand in 2015, when Brooks found himself homeless for a little over a year while he was attending Henry Ford College. The experience emboldened him to be of service to others and find ways to bring about social change.

In 2018, Brooks established From the Hood For The Hood, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing, empowering, and engaging young people and communities. The organization serves as a training agent for social change and combating homelessness. Recently, they have distributed PPE, household goods, and baby supplies to needy communities, and have participated in various protests and rallies which support Black Lives Matter and call for social equity.

"I feel like this is part of my purpose... walking with that activism and being an agent of change," he says.

Brooks' great-grandparents also stressed the importance of education, especially for a black man. He holds Associate Degrees in Music and Recording Arts Technology, and is currently pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Music and Entertainment Business. His goal is to use revenue from the music industry to promote and accomplish community development in overlooked Detroit neighborhoods. "Downtown Detroit has a lot of development and equity, but a lot of neighborhoods within the city have been left hanging to dry without resources," says Brooks.

While at Henry Ford College, Brooks established a scholarship to be used to give a hand up to students who participate in the Black Male & Queen Focus Group, which serves as an academic and social support at the college. Now at Ferris State University, he is in the process of proposing creation of a fellowship to provide guidance, mentorship, and financial assistance to students of color. He says it's his own way of working to promote the concept of equity, which he says ought to be part of the equation for people of color seeking to advance themselves. Brooks says equity is merely giving more assistance to someone who may need it in order to accomplish the same goal as someone who requires no assistance. Because this is still an issue, he says that it points to a continuation of the civil rights movement in the nation. "I would say the civil rights movement has not even stopped, although I would say attention may have been left off of it, but now we're in the age of social media and we're able to visualize a lot of things that have been going on," he says. "Nothing's new under the sun."

Brooks says environment plays a role in how African Americans see themselves and in how motivated they are to seek change. He says polluted neighborhoods, a lack of grocery stores, and an abundance of liquor stores can lead to a negative attitude in general. When people lack resources, he adds, they can become enslaved in their minds. But he also sees hope in the way people, especially young people, are rallying and demanding to be heard. He concedes that change will not be immediate, but may take many generations to finally arrive. "I believe that you are the change which you seek," he says. "We all have a purpose and I believe that although our purposes may be unique, I feel like God still equipped us with something to help better society as a whole, and it is our duty to utilize our purpose."

Find out more about Byron Brooks and his activism at http://www.facebook.com/ForTheHood313/ .