NOIR Black Chamber of Commerce Inc.

Noir Black Chamber of Commerce Inc.

Noir Black Chamber of Commerce Inc. was launched in Louisville Kentucky in August 2019 by Founder and CEO John Shaw-Woo. The chamber began with ten members and today it serves over 180 members in Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

Since the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and others, Black, Brown, and White Americans have rallied locally and across the nation against systemic racism, social and economic injustices, and 400 years of health and wellness disparities with no justice in sight. Black Americans must now move towards ACTION through the creation of new and innovative economic and social pathways that will lead to self-sufficiency and social equality.

Noir Black Chamber of Commerce Inc. (NOIRBCC), is a national 501C3 Economic Development Organization based in Louisville Kentucky, and a certified Community Development Entity (CDE) under The U.S. Department of Treasury. As Kentucky’s only black chamber of commerce, the organization's mission is to "Moving Black America Forward" through the creation of innovative programming that will lead to social and economic mobility for Black Americans. The Chamber has identified and adopted eight important pillars that are critical to Moving Black America Forward. The first four pillars pertain to "business" support to help black entrepreneurs - start, small black businesses - grow, midsize businesses - sustain, and black corporate professionals - rise. The last four pillars address the “disease” that black communities must address in order to overcome and break the cycle of generational poverty. The first is black community trauma, black teen higher professional career attainment, black teen apprenticeship and job training programs for non-college-bound students, and entitlement reform. In addition, the chamber has also created the NOIRBCC HBCU & PBI Black Talent Corporate Placement Program, and the NOIRBCC Homebuyer Education Program to move more black and brown families towards homeownership.