I AM BLACK HISTORY | Naomi Davis

Naomi Davis

Naomi Davis is Black History because she is redefining what freedom looks like in the 21st century.

In Chicago, where the legacies of the Great Migration, segregation, and environmental injustice still shape neighborhoods, Naomi stands as a visionary architect of self-sustaining Black communities. As Founder and CEO of Blacks in Green, she has built a movement rooted in ownership, environmental stewardship, and economic sovereignty.

Her philosophy is deeply personal.

Naomi is the granddaughter of Mississippi sharecroppers. From that lineage, she developed Grannynomics™, a values-based economic framework inspired by her grandmother’s household management. The principles are practical and powerful: everyone must work, pay as you go, own land, and ensure that every young person learns a trade. What her grandmother practiced for survival, Naomi has codified into strategy for liberation.

In 2007, she launched Blacks in Green to implement what she calls the 8 Principles of Green Village Building™. These principles offer a whole-system solution to poverty and pollution, recognizing that environmental justice and economic justice are inseparable.

Her flagship concept, the Sustainable Square Mile™, reimagines neighborhoods as walkable, self-reliant villages. In this model, residents can live, work, shop, learn, and worship within their own community. Land and businesses are locally owned. Wealth circulates internally rather than being extracted. Environmental design supports health, resilience, and climate adaptation.

This is not just urban planning. It is civil rights work.

Naomi has positioned environmental justice as the next frontier of Black liberation. Under her leadership, Blacks in Green secured a $10 million federal grant to serve as an Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center for the Midwest. Through this initiative, BIG supports communities navigating federal funding for clean energy, climate mitigation, and environmental restoration.

Her impact also includes preserving sacred ground.

Naomi led the acquisition and restoration of the childhood home of Emmett Till in Chicago’s West Woodlawn neighborhood. Rather than allowing this historic property to be lost to neglect or speculative development, she is transforming it into a museum and cultural space. In doing so, she protects a landmark that helped ignite the modern Civil Rights Movement.

She understands that preserving history is part of building the future.

Nationally recognized as a climate and community leader, Naomi has served on transition teams for state and city administrations and was named to the 2024 Grist 50 list of climate leaders. Yet her work remains rooted in the neighborhood level, block by block.

Naomi Davis is Black History because she bridges generations.

She honors the discipline of her ancestors. She protects the memory of our martyrs. She designs sustainable futures for Black communities. Black History is not only about resistance.It is about reconstruction. It is about ownership. It is about building systems that sustain us. Naomi Davis is not just talking about change. She is designing it, funding it, and living it. And in Chicago, her blueprint is already taking shape.