"Culture is one of the most important levers to pull in order to rehabilitate and re-launch an economy; It also provides direction.”  Aminata Traorẻ

 'Our Heritage' - Booker T Washington:  "If we just build our businesses and only do business with each other, we not only will survive but prosper."

Purpose Driven: Business, Diversity and Inclusion in the Commerce, Culture, Community, Education, Influence, Knowledge & Faith. 

We are ‘Florida’s’ Advocates for the PAN AFRICAN AMERICAN Culture!  Dedicated to promoting Pan African Culture, Heritage, and its economic diversity and opportunities to ‘New World Market Place’, the diaspora of PAN AFRICA!

Our Mission:

​ "Promoting Cultural Commerce throughout the Global Marketplace”

The Florida Black Chamber was organized in 2004 as a ‘State Chamber’, with the mission of supporting the economic development platform of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Incorporated, Washington, D.C.; and to act as a resource for minority chambers and economic development organizations in the State of Florida. 

The Florida Black Chamber’s primary focus is to be an advocate for Pan African American businesses and communities.  All effort is placed on accurately marketing, advertising, and promoting the culture and heritage of African Americans and seeking opportunities for minority-owned businesses and chamber members, by involving the community, as a whole in our efforts. No resource or relationship is discarded in the Florida Black Chamber’s effort to create jobs and business opportunities. A Pan African and global cultural marketing strategy enhances the success opportunities for all chamber members.  We are the Pan African Cultural Heritage Market Place.

Florida has the most diverse Pan African population in the United States.  People of African Descent from Africa, Europe, The Caribbean, South and Central America, have made Florida their home.  African Americans from every state have migrated to Florida, bringing the unique blend of their culture, customs and traditions, and integrated them into the Cultural Gumbo Pot of FLORIDA.

The Florida Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc. and its affiliates and partners have united to promote “OUR” Great State and have enlisted other organizations to join our network to foster the development of a Pan African American Cultural Economics Infrastructure to promote Florida and the businesses and communities associated with the African Culture to the Global Market Place, to include partnering with cities across the Southern Region of the United States for the benefit of all members of the culture that have suffered from neglect, evidenced by disparity across all areas of  economic, statistical and analytical  measurements.

The National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center was created to market and promote cultural heritage and tourism destinations of interest to people of African Descent. The Center markets, advertise and promotes historical communities, major attractions, tourism-related businesses, and cultural arts and entertainment venues. 

In honor of "The Green Book", information is also provided to serve the unique cultural needs of the Diaspora. The National Cultural Heritage Society and its local community-based affiliates serve as cultural heritage tourism ambassadors, preservationist, and educational advocates. The ultimate goal being the preservation of our past and the education of future generations concerning our culture, our heritage, and our traditions, by celebrating via the arts!!  ​

For more.....www.nationalculturalheritagetourismcenter.com

 ​"The Negro traveler's inconveniences are many and they are increasing because today so many more are traveling, individually and in groups."

-Wendell P. Alston 

Victor Hugo Green (November 9, 1892 - aft. 1964?) was a Harlem, New York, postal employee and civic leader. He was the creator of an African American travel guide known as The Green Book. It was first published as The Negro Motorist Green Book and later as The Negro Travelers' Green Book. The books were published from 1936 to 1964. He reviewed hotels and restaurants that did business with African Americans during the time of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation in the United States. Green used postal workers as guides to tell him: Well, here's a good place here, a good place there. And, of course, as you travel, people picked up things and told him things.

He printed 15,000 copies each year. The Negro Motorist Green Book was a publication released in 1936 that served as a guide for African-American travelers. Because of the racist conditions that existed from segregation, blacks needed a reference manual to guide them to integrated or black-friendly establishments. That’s when they turned to “The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide” by a Harlem postal employee and civic leader named Victor H. Green and presented by the Esso Standard Oil Company. Originally provided to serve Metropolitan New York, the book received such an alarming response, it was spread throughout the country within one year.  The catch phrase was “Now we can travel without embarrassment.”
 

The Green Book often provided information on local tourist homes, which were private residences owned by blacks and open to travelers. It was especially helpful to blacks that traveled through sunset towns or towns that publicly stated that blacks had to leave the town by sundown, or it would be cause for arrest. Also listed were hotels, barbershops, beauty salons, restaurants, garages, liquor stores, ball parks and taverns. It also provided a listing of the white-owned, black-friendly locations for accommodations and food.

The publication was free, with a 10-cent cost of shipping. As interest grew, the Green Book solicited salespersons nationwide to build its ad sales.   Inside the pages of the Green Book were action photos of the various locations, along with historical and background information for the readers’ review. Although Victor Green’s initial edition only encompassed metropolitan New York, the “Green Book” soon expanded to Bermuda (white dinner jackets were recommended for gentlemen), Mexico and Canada. The 15,000 copies Green eventually printed each year were sold as a marketing tool not just to black-owned businesses but to the white marketplace, implying that it made good economic sense to take advantage of the growing affluence and mobility of African Americans. Esso stations, unusual in franchising to African Americans, were a popular place to pick one up.

Within the pages of the introduction, the guide states: “There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published.  That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States.”

 The “Forgotten Communities Program’ was created as a community-based project to support talented painters and performing artists to re-capture the spirituality and dignity of "Ordinary People" who once, and now, inhabit cultural and historic communities that are neglected by mainstream society.  Only through the arts, can the spiritual moment and importance of a culture be recreated and conveyed to another culture.  The Forgotten Communities Program is a call to all artists, particularly those of African descent, to begin painting their visions and memories of their culturally historic communities and share them with their people and the world.  The ultimate goal of the project was, to create a cultural image for future generations; and to educate others on the value and importance of our culture to America and the Diaspora. The program supports the National Cultural Heritage Initiative created to develop a national tourism and travel network that will promote the culture and heritage of People of African descent in the United States of America. 

 The “Forgotten Communities Program’ is the cornerstone of the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute and the National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center, Inc.  The program is a major program under the National Cultural Heritage Initiative and serves as the catalyst for the promotion and marketing of the culture, heritage and the communities of people of African Descent. 

The program was created and developed to support the efforts of chambers of commerce, economic and community development entities address economic and job creation issues in disadvantaged communities.    The leadership at the local level is comprised of entrepreneurs, artist, educators, government, and community activists/leaders.  The goal by all is to access the viability of creating a tourism destination, by establishing an arts cluster as an attraction.  Art that focuses on the cultural history and people of the city and community, told in paint, with emphasis on faith and tradition.  

The program has proved itself as very successful and has allowed an industry to take hold and renewed interest in historic Black communities.  With the support of talented painters and performing artists, the program has been able to spiritually recapture the people’s memories and visions and dreams of the people that resided there, outside of the view of mainstream America.  Forgotten Communities is not Black Art, it is a spiritual movement, to showcase a people of dignity and neighborhoods that are a part of us.  Only through the arts, can the spiritual moment and importance of a culture be recreated and conveyed to another culture.

The Forgotten Communities Program is a ‘call to all artists’, particularly those of African descent, to begin painting their visions and memories of their culturally significant and historic communities.  The National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center was created to allow those images to be shared with the world and rekindle an interest in these forgotten communities.  The knowledge required to sustain the community and help it grow is provided by the research and teaching of the fellows and members of the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute.

The National Cultural Heritage Tourism Center and the Pan African Cultural Heritage Institute are poised to share their knowledge and resources to assist in ultimate goal being to create artistic images and performances that will cause a nation to think and consider redeveloping these cultural treasures for future generations reeducate others and ourselves on the value and importance of our culture in America and the Diaspora.