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Up From Slavery: Afro-Brazilian Activism in São Paulo, 1888-1938*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Kim D. Butler
Kim D. Butler*
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
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Extract

Throughout the centuries of slavery in the Americas and the Caribbean, Africans and their descendants struggled against a social system that sought to reduce them to chattel. They found that their struggle was to continue, albeit in different forms, long after abolition. In Brazil, emancipation in 1888 was followed the next year by the demise of imperial government and the installation of the First Republic. This created a new political and legal framework for Afro-Brazilians to negotiate positions in society. Racial relations in former slave societies are not the simple result of imposed identities and social spaces by a dominant group upon an oppressed group. They evolve from a dialectical power struggle in which blacks as well as whites affect the outcome.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , October 1992 , pp. 179 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1992

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Footnotes

*

The author wishes to thank Howard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Fulbright Foundation for their generous support of this research.

References

1 Gilberto Freyre is the author most associated with the concept of racial democracy. See The Masters and the Slaves [Casa-Grande e Senzala) (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946; New World in the Tropics (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959).

2 This practice is reflected in official statistics which distinguish between black “prêto”) and brown “pardo”) classifications, and emphasizes color, rather than racial, differences.

3 de Lacerda, Jean Baptiste, “The Metis, or Half-Breeds, of Brazil,” in Spiller, Gustav, (ed.), Papers on Inter-Racial Problems Communicated to the First Universal Races Congress held at the University of London, July 26–29, 1911 (NY: Negro Universities Press, 1969), p. 382.Google Scholar

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6 Merrick, and Graham, , Population, Table V–2, p. 92;Google Scholar Beigeulman, Paula, A Formação do Povo no Complexo Cafeeiro: Aspectos Políticos (São Paulo: Livraria Pioneira Editora, 1968), pp. 94–96.Google Scholar

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8 Brazil, Census, 1890 and 1940. Florestan Fernandes estimates that the greatest growth occurred between 1910and 1934, when the black population jumped from 26,380 to 90,110. Fernandes, , Negro, p. 61.Google Scholar

9 Fernandes, , Negro, p. 11 Google Scholar; Dean, Warren, The Industrialization of São Paulo, 1880–1945, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969), pp. 49–66.Google Scholar For a fuller discussion, see Andrews, George Reid, “Black and White Workers: São Paulo, Brazil, 1888–1928,” HAHR, 68(August 1988), 491–524.Google Scholar

10 Henrique Cunha later became an editor of Clarim da Alvorada and organizer at the Clube Negra de Cultura Social.

11 Henrique Cunha, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 20 January 1989.

12 Lowrie, Samuel H., “O Elemento Negro na População de São Paulo,” Revista do Archivo Municipal de São Paulo, Ano IV, 48 (June 1938), 54.Google Scholar

13 A study of registered births between 1925 and 1929 corroborates these residential patterns. The vast majority of Afro-Brazilian births were registered in Bela Vista, with smaller concentrations in Santa Cecilia and Liberdade. Directoría do Serviço Sanitârio do Estado de São Paulo, Boletim Mensal de Estatistica Demographo-Sanitaria de São Paulo, 1925 and 1929. The 1934 school census showed that black students continued to be concentrated in the neighborhood of Bela Vista. Censo Escolar, 1934 in Diario Oficial de São Paulo, 14 June 1936.

14 For a fuller discussion of Afro-Brazilian communities in these and other neighborhoods, see leda Britto, Marques, Samba na Cidade de São Paulo (1900–1930): Um Exercicio de Resistencia Cultural (São Paulo: FFLCH-USP, 1986), pp. 38–42.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., pp. 38–40.

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19 Progresso, 31 Jan 1932.

20 Andrews, , Black and White Workers, p. 141 Google Scholar; “Lembrança,” A Liberdade, 3 August 1919.

21 Andrews, , Blacks and Whites, p. 141.Google Scholar

22 Early Afro-Brazilian social newspapers are a rich source of information on these clubs that have yet to be fully explored. The most complete set available in the United States is a microfilm edited by Mitchell, Michael, The Black Press of Brazil, 1916–1969. (Firestone Library; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, n.d., microfilm).Google Scholar

23 Eunice Cunha joined the Clube Negra de Cultura Social in the 1930s, where she met her future husband, Henrique.

24 Eunice Cunha, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 20 January 1989.

25 Bandeirante, August 1918; A Sentinella, 10 October 1920.

26 Based on a survey of the activities of fourteen clubs as reported by nine black newspapers between 1916 and 1920. O Menelik, 1916; O Bandeirante, 1918–1919; O Alfinete, 1918, 1921; A Liberdade, 1919–1920; A Sentinella, 1920; A Rua, 1916; O Xauter, 1916; Elite, 1924; O Kosmos, 1922. The organization of the social clubs, which borrowed from the brotherhoods, was, in turn, to become the model for the modern escolas de samba (samba schools).

27 A Liberticide, 3 August 1919. This practice is still common among samba singers today, i.e., Martinho da Vila, Gracia do Salgueiro, Neguinho da Beija-Flor, and Jorginho do Imperio, popular singers of Vila Isabel, Salgueiro, Beija-Flor, and Imperio Serrano escolas de samba in Rio, respectively.

28 See Britto, Samba na Cidade de São Paulo, for a full discussion of the emergence of samba during this era.

29 Andrews, , Blacks and Whites, p. 142.Google Scholar

30 O Estado de São Paulo, 21 June 1930.

31 Andrews, , Blacks and Whites, p. 142.Google Scholar

32 O Baluarte, 1904.

33 Martins, Jose Benedicto, “Os Prêtas e o Progresso,” O Alfinete, 3 September 1918, p. 2.Google Scholar

34 Menelik, 1 January 1916.

35 Silva, Gastao R., “Os Agentes da Policiaem Acção,” Bandeirante, Aprii 1919.Google Scholar

36 Fausto, Boris, Crime e Cotidiano: A Criminalidade em São Paulo, 1880–1924. (São Paulo: Editora Brasiliense, 1984), p. 52.Google Scholar For Fausto’s full discussion of racial discrimination by the police, see pp. 51–9.

37 Silva, Gastao R., “Os Agentes da Policia em Acção,” Bandeirante, April 1919.Google Scholar

38 On the various group tensions during this period see for example, Wesson, and Fleischer, , Brazil in Transition, p. 9;Google Scholar Levi-Moreira, Silvia, “Ideologia e atuação da Liga Nacionalista de São Paulo (1917–1924)” in Universidade de São Paulo, Revista de Historia (Nova Serie), No. 116, Jan–Jun 1984, pp. 67–74;Google Scholar Maram, Sheldon L., “Labor and the Left in Brazil, 1980–1921: A Movement Aborted,” HAHR 57:2 (1977);Google Scholar Andrews, George Reid, “Black and White Workers: São Paulo, Brazil, 1888–1928,” HAHR 68:3 (1988);Google Scholar McCann, Frank D., “The Formative Period of Twentieth-Century Brazilian Army Thought, 1900–1922,” HAHR 64:4 (1984).Google Scholar

39 The nickname of abolitionist Luiz Gama.

40 For a catalog of full publication data for these and other papers included on her companion microfilm, see Ferrara, Miriam Nicolau, A Imprensa Negra Paulista, 1915–1963 (São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, FFLCH, 1986), pp. 235–279.Google Scholar Her microfilm, “Jornais da Raça Negra” (1904–1963), 2 rolls, is available at the Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros.

41 Leite, Jose Correla quoted in Ferrara, Imprensa Negra, p. 56.Google Scholar

42 Jose Correia Leite, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 5 January 1989.

43 Leite, Jose Correia, “Valor da Raça,” Clarim, 6 April 1924.Google Scholar

44 ibid.

45 Leite, Jose Correia, “O Verbo do Preto,” Clarim, 7 December 1924.Google Scholar

46 See, for example, “Os Homens Prêtos e a Instrucção,” Progresso, 23 June 1928; de Souza, Luiz, “O Momento,” Clarim, 3 March 1929.Google Scholar

47 See especially early editions, Clarim, 1924 through 1928.

48 Progresso, 24 March 1929.

49 Jose Correia Leite, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 5 January 1989.

50 Progresso, 24 March 1929.

51 Auriverde, 29 Aprii 1929; Progresso, 23 June 1928.

52 Mitchell, Michael, “Racial Consciousness and the Political Attitudes and Behavior of Blacks in São Paulo, Brazil,” Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1977, p. 126.Google Scholar

53 Progresso, 7 September 1928.

54 Speech reprinted in A Gazeta 25 August 1928, cited in Mitchell, , “Racial Consciousness,” p. 149 Google Scholar; Progresso 19 August 1928.

55 Progresso 24 March 1929.

56 Progresso, 24 March 1929.

57 Henrique Cunha, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 20 January 1989; Fernandes, Florestan, A Integração do Negro na Sociedade de Clases, vol. 2 (São Paulo: Editora Atica, 1978), p. 14.Google Scholar

58 dos Santos, Manoel Antonio, “Trajectòria do Ideal,” Tribuna Negra, September 1935.Google Scholar

59 Jose Correia Leite, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 5 January 1989.

60 Progresso, 16 December 1929; 24 March 1929; see also Andrews, , Blacks and Whites, pp. 137–138 Google Scholar, on the Annunciation of Brazilian Racism.

61 See, for example, Clarim, September 1930.

62 The first installment of “O Mundo Negro” appeared in Clarim 1 December 1930.

63 The sacrifice of many blacks in the Paraguayan War weighed heavily in shaping this position. Jose Correia Leite, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 7 January 1989.

64 Progresso, 12 October 1928.

65 Progresso, 24 February 1929; 28 April 1929; 23 June 1929.

66 Progresso, 15 November 1930.

67 Progresso, 24 February 1929.

68 Freyre, Gilberto, “Human Factors Behind Brazilian Development,” Progress (Winter 1951–52); reprint, Ipswich, Great Britain: W.S. Cowell, Ltd., n.d., p. 6.Google Scholar

69 Progresso, 24 February 1929.

70 O Clarim, 3 February 1929.

71 Clarim, April-August 1929.

72 “O problema do negro brasileiro e o da integralização absoluta, completa, do Negro em toda a vida brasileira (politica, social, religiosa, economica, operaria, miltar, etc.) deve ter toda formação e toda aceitação em ludo e em toda parte, dadas as condiçòes competentes, physicas, technicas, intellectuaes e moraes, exigidas para a igualdade perante a lei.” O Clarim, 9 June 1929.

73 Erickson, Kenneth, The Brazilian corporative State and Working-Class Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), p. 2 Google Scholar; Nathaniel Leff describes this type of patronage system as “clien-telistic politics.” Leff, Nathaniel H., Economic Policy-Making and Development in Brazil, 1947–1964 (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1968), p. 120.Google Scholar

74 Rachum, Ilan, “Feminism, Woman Suffrage, and National Politics in Brazil: 1922–1937,” Luso-Brazilian Review 14:1 (Summer 1977), 118–134.Google Scholar

75 Williams, Margaret Todaro, “Integralism and the Brazilian Catholic Church,” HAHR 54:3 (August 1974), 431–452.Google Scholar

76 Francisco Lucrecio, Secretary General of the Frente Negra Brasileira, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 10 January 1989; A Voz da Raca, March 1933–November 1937.

77 Diario de São Paulo, 18 December 1931, p. 12; Mitchell, , “Racial Consciousness,” p. 131;Google Scholar Arlindo Veiga dos Santos cited in Fernandes, , A Integração do Negro na Sociedade de Classes, 2: 43–4.Google Scholar Arlindo Veiga and Francisco Lucrecio also recalled breaking the “footing” taboo. “Footing” was an ambulatory form of “cruising”; young people strolled around the downtown plazas on weekends for social meetings. Afro-Brazilians were made to feel unwelcome, and generally did not frequent the public parks. Frente Negra followers broke this taboo by urging its members to “foot” around the parks. Francisco Lucrecio, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 10 January 1989; Arlindo Veiga dos Santos quoted in Fernandes, , Integração, 2: 43.Google Scholar It should be noted that this information is based solely on Frente Negra sources. This researcher has been unable to find corroborating sources to prove that this type of protest was organized FNB action.

78 Progresso, 31 January 1932.

79 Marcello Orlando Ribeiro, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 10 January 1989. Orlando was a beneficiary of the Frente Negra’s training program, and eventually became a translator on the police force.

80 Aristedes Barbosa, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 21 January 1989.

81 Mitchell, Michael, “Racial Consciousness,” p. 131.Google Scholar

82 Membership estimates are highly tentative as no documentation has been located for actual membership data. The original “Livrao,” in which Frente Negra membership records were kept, was destroyed by a leaky roof in the mid-1980s. Although A Voz da Raça attests to an extensive membership, it was a Frente Negra publication and may have inflated figures. Francisco Lucrecio, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 10 January 1989.

83 I wish to thank Dr. Michael Mitchell for his insight into Arlindo Veiga’s political perspective. Veiga was a traditionalist to the point of supporting the restoration of the monarchy (the regime responsible for abolition), partly due to his upbringing by a Catholic congregation during his youth.

84 Jose Correla Leite, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 5 January 1989; Francisco Lucrecio, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 10 January 1989; Mitchell, , “Racial Consciousness,” p. 135 Google Scholar; Clarim, March 1932.

85 Lawyer J. Guaranà Santana founded an anti-Vargas socialist group commonly known as the Black Legion in 1932, two months before the São Paulo revolt. In 1933, he began publishing Brasil Novo, a weekly socialist newspaper. Brasil Novo, 3 April 1933; Henrique Cunha, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 20 January 1989.

86 Cultura, January 1934; Henrique and Eunice Cunha, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 20 January 1989.

87 Aristides Barbosa went on to edit an Afro-Brazilian newspaper.

88 Aristides Barbosa, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 21 January 1989.

89 Ibid.

90 Jose Correia Leite, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 7 January 1989.

91 Erickson, Kenneth, Brazilian Corporative State, p. 22.Google Scholar

92 Arlindo Veiga dos Santos campaigned to become a delegate to the Constituent Assembly in 1933, and Francisco Lucrecio ran for another office several years later. Both campaigns were unsuccessful. A Voz da Raça, 29 April 1933, 20 May 1933; Francisco Lucrecio, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 10 January 1989.

93 Levine, Robert M., The Vargas Regime: The Critical Years: 1934–1938 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), pp. 138–158.Google Scholar

94 Aristìdes Barbosa, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 21 January 1989.

95 Jose Correia Leite, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 7 January 1989.

96 Progresso, 24 November 1929.

97 Ibid.

98 Andrews notes the same practice in Kosmos during the 1920s, Blacks and Whites, p. 142.

99 Progresso, 31 January 1932.

100 Gonzalez, Lelia, “The Unified Black Movement: A New Stage in Black Political Mobilization,” in Fontaine, Pierre-Michel, ed., Race, Class and Power in Brazil (Los Angeles: UCLA, Center for Afro-American Studies, 1985), pp. 120–134.Google Scholar

101 The author visited Brazil after the abolition centennial in 1988 for a series of meetings between African Americans and Afro-Brazilians in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Maranhao. The common theme expressed in each state was that abolition had not freed Afro-Brazilians from social slavery, and that the struggle for true freedom would continue.

102 Francisco Lucrecio, interview by author, Tape recording, São Paulo, 10 January 1989.