Racism and Black Activism in Brazil: a Literary and Historical Review

This article intends to present a review on the history and literature of racism and black activism in Brazil. It is divided into two parts: the first is focused on the way concepts such as racism and anti-racism were explored in Brazilian academia, the emergence of the racial democracy thesis and its critics, and academic militance. The second follows the development of black activism in Brazil since the proclamation of the Republic (1889) until today, including two periods of authoritarian government. Where literature in the field suggests there were three phases of black activism in Brazil, we propose a fourth phase for the current period (2000’s onwards). The guiding idea of this division is that academic and street activism were developed side by side – findings in academia were reflected in the flags defended by activists, and the latter became public policy.