Building Community Through Literacy
Reimagining What Is Possible
Jerjuan Howard defines himself as a community builder—someone intentional about bringing people together in physical spaces for connection, shared energy, and ideas. That identity is rooted in a lifetime on Detroit’s west side, where his great-grandparents first moved in 1939 and where he has lived, attended school, and experienced life across generations.
For as long as he can remember, a long-vacant building on Puritan Avenue was part of his everyday environment. Boarded up and overlooked, it stood as a symbol of disinvestment in the neighborhood he called home. But even as a child walking past it on his way to school, Jerjuan recognized the possibility where others saw absence.
As he grew, that awareness became direction. His early aspirations included becoming a lawyer inspired by the Trayvon Martin case, but his deeper throughline remained consistent: using whatever path he chose to reinvest in his community and create lasting change.
Today, that vision has taken shape through entrepreneurship. The Howard Family Bookstore now occupies that once-vacant building, transforming it into a literacy-focused, community-centered business on Detroit’s west side.
Building a Business Rooted in Community Need
The Howard Family Bookstore is more than a retail space. It is a neighborhood business designed around access, education, and community connection.
Located in Detroit’s Bethune community near five neighborhood schools, the bookstore offers new and used books at accessible prices while also serving as a gathering space for programming, conversation, and cultural engagement. It features local authors and was intentionally designed to serve both youth and longtime residents.
For Jerjuan, the bookstore represents a specific kind of entrepreneurship—one rooted in solving local challenges while creating sustainable infrastructure in the community.
His work reflects a broader definition of business ownership: building systems that strengthen both people and place.
From Idea to Enterprise
The bookstore did not begin as a bookstore.
Jerjuan initially envisioned a coffee and tea business tied to a neighborhood circular economy. But after encountering research highlighting low literacy rates in Detroit—affecting both youth and adults—his direction shifted.
Books had changed how he understood the world. He wanted to build a business that could provide that same access for others.
That shift led to the creation of the Howard Family Bookstore, a for-profit venture named in honor of his family’s legacy of service and literacy. It reflects both personal history and entrepreneurial purpose, grounded in the belief that businesses can serve as tools for community transformation.
Entrepreneurship Rooted in Early Experience and Ecosystem Support
Jerjuan’s path reflects a layered entrepreneurial journey shaped by lived experience and ecosystem support.
Before launching the bookstore, he founded Umoja Debate League, a nonprofit focused on youth communication and leadership development, and later created Umoja Village, a community gathering and garden space (Umoja meaning “unity” in Swahili). These initiatives laid the groundwork for his approach to business: community-first, systems-oriented, and rooted in local engagement.
He also worked with his brother to install free little libraries along Puritan Avenue, reinforcing his long-standing commitment to literacy access and neighborhood revitalization.
When it came time to acquire and redevelop the bookstore space, Jerjuan invested his life savings and leveraged gap financing from ProsperUs Detroit, a community development financial institution supporting local entrepreneurs. Additional support came through Common Future’s Legacy Lab initiative, which invests in and advocates for community-owned Black businesses.
A Business Designed for the Next Generation
With five schools nearby, the bookstore is deeply embedded in the daily life of the neighborhood. Students pass it every day, and from the earliest stages of development, young people have been involved—helping build bookshelves and engaging with the space as it took shape.
For Jerjuan, this participation is intentional. It reflects his belief that entrepreneurship should create visibility and opportunity for the next generation.
In addition to traditional books and programming, the space incorporates creative and technology-driven tools, including 3D printing and virtual reality experiences designed to support storytelling, design, and learning.
A Growing Entrepreneurial Journey
Jerjuan’s work extends beyond the bookstore. He is also an author, having published A Message to Black College Students in 2020 while completing his studies at Western Michigan University. The themes of that book—education, purpose, and responsibility—now echo through his entrepreneurial work.
Across all of his ventures, Jerjuan centers a guiding principle: problem solving is one of the highest forms of intelligence. His goal as an entrepreneur is to ensure that Black communities are not only served, but strengthened through the systems and spaces built within them.
Looking Ahead
The Howard Family Bookstore continues to grow as both a business and a community anchor. Through literacy programming, cultural events, and neighborhood engagement, it reflects what is possible when entrepreneurship is rooted in place and supported by ecosystem partnerships.
Jerjuan’s journey highlights the role entrepreneurs play in shaping neighborhoods—not only through ideas, but through sustained investment, risk-taking, and community connection.
His story is a reminder that entrepreneurship is not only about building businesses. It is also about building infrastructure, restoring possibility, and creating pathways for the next generation to imagine more.
Learn more about the Howard Family Bookstore at howardfamilybookstore.com and connect with them on Instagram.
Howard Family Bookstore is open Monday through Wednesday from 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m.–5 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m.–2 p.m. The bookstore is closed Thursdays and Sundays.
