Elijah's Coles-Brown's Story

Elijah Coles-Brown is a national motivational speaker, social justice and civil rights activist, entrepreneur, speech writer, podcaster, former talk show host and mentor with a decade of experience. He was born on February 10, 2004, in Norfolk, VA to his mother, Brenda Coles, who has been a civil rights activist for 4 decades. Early in his life, his mother quickly saw his accelerated growth and he eventually began reading and writing at the age of 3 years old, reading an average of about 20 books a day. While in kindergarten, he read on a 4th-grade level. He graduated from John Randolph Tucker High School from the Center for Spanish Language and Global Citizenship in 2022 and was certified bilingual by the state of Virginia on his diploma. He also had the opportunity during his tenure in high school to study abroad in Spain and study the language and culture. Currently, he is a sophomore at Virginia State University majoring in criminology, with a concentration in forensic science. 

Before Elijah became involved in the realm of activism, volunteer work was, and still is, one of Elijah’s main passions. He has volunteered politically and within the community since he was 4 years old. He volunteered for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns (2008 and 2012), Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential Campaign, and many other political campaigns. Though he has volunteered and participated in a lot of political campaigns, his volunteering work is not just limited to politics. He regularly volunteers for events around the community and enjoys helping others who are in need. He has helped give out food for Thanksgiving for those in need, donated gifts to young people for Christmas, and donated books and clothes to youth within his community. In 2018, his love for volunteering inspired him to host a 1,000 Backpacks Campaign, where he donated book bags, school supplies, and clothes for children and families all around the Richmond community, where he’s from. 

One of Elijah’s first experiences with civil rights activism and social justice was when he had the opportunity to attend the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington in 2013. Early exposure from a young age to civil rights and utilizing his voice, as well as his early years of education, helped him become comfortable with public speaking. The first speech that he ever performed publicly was the “I Have a Dream” speech at 31st Street Baptist Church. Since that speech, he has been asked to perform speeches in different venues and events around the state of Virginia, and eventually, around the nation. Motivational speaking and activism eventually changed his mindset and imbued him with the hope of reinforcing the fact that young people can do anything if they read, dream, and imagine. He also wants to encourage young people, as well as adults, that youth are just as capable of making a change as adults are. These hopes and views inspired him to create his own company, which led to the birth of Dreamers Imagine. He also created a subset of Dreamers Imagine, called Dreamers Imagine Productions. This subset was created in order to show the historical significance and occurrences of different time periods in American history. One of the productions, called Freedom Day, is a theatrical production based on a speech by Frederick Douglass called, “The Present and Future of the Colored People of America”. Freedom Day shows the cruel and unequivocal evil of slavery, using a medium that can reach youth and adults alike. In 2024, Elijah decided to turn Dreamers Imagine into a new company called Elijah’s Motivations. 

As he was growing up, he was actively involved with the National Society of Black Engineers, and though he is no longer seeking a career in engineering, he still would like to pursue a job in the STEM field by pursuing a career in forensic science. He was the President of the Nubian Village Chapter (now referred to as NVA-STEM) of NSBE for two years. 

Elijah has made many public news and radio appearances. He has been featured in Time Magazine, as well as other newspaper and magazine articles. He has made an appearance on The Karen Hunter Show podcast, Roland Martin’s TVONE show, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and many local and national news and radio stations. In September 2018 through October 2018, Elijah co-hosted a TV Talk Show titled "Youthful Voices” for 5 weeks and he hosted his own podcast show, titled "The Elijah Coles-Brown Show", which was on Karen Hunter's Podcast Network, The Hub. Elijah was featured in the documentary, Families are Forever, Parkland Strong, which detailed the aftermath of the Parkland Shooting and how it affected youth and families, both directly and indirectly impacted. In 2024, he is starting his own podcast called “Where Did Our Dreams Go: The Elijah Coles-Brown Podcast. 

Some highlights of Elijah’s career include: In 2016, he had the honor to introduce the 44th President of the United States, President Barack Obama, on a national conference call to nearly 10,000 people. He also had the opportunity to speak via Skype at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA. At the 2015 National NSBE Convention, in Anaheim, CA, Elijah recited the “I Have a Dream” speech to a crowd of over 5,000 professional and aspiring engineers, as well as people working in the STEM field. In  2015, He had the opportunity to speak at Governor McAuliffe’s Transportation Conference and the Virginia Department of Transportation Career Expo. In 2016, he had the opportunity to work with a filmmaker named James Kicklighter, to create a commercial for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential Campaign and he had the opportunity worked with a filmmaker named Natasha Scully, from the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, who created a documentary about Elijah. This eventually led to him being able to speak at the Omega Institute for the Being Fearless Conference. Elijah also had the honor to speak at Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network Convention in New York City in April of 2017 and 2018 and spoke and marched at the Thousand Ministers' March for Justice in Washington D.C sponsored by Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network. Elijah has also had the honor to teach students at Old Dominion University, and assist Professor Crystal Nolen with her Public Speaking 101 class and Persuasion 300 class. Additionally, Elijah had the opportunity to teach an Aspect of Business Class at Bryant & Stratton College in Hampton VA. These are just some of the major events that Elijah has participated in and spoken at. He has had an opportunity to speak for a vast amount of churches and other organizations.

Elijah loves the Lord and God remains his foundation for everything that he does. Over the course of his life, he has continued to live by the values that his mother instilled in him: Love who you are, work hard at everything you do, be honest, help others, love your family, and always be the best that you can be.