The Black Movement and Race Relations in Brazil: Building New Knowledge through Online Oral History Materials

Abstract

In 2003, under the auspices of the Center for Research and Documentation of Contemporary Brazilian History (CPDOC),1 we embarked on an oral history project to document the black movement in Brazil. This movement had long historical underpinnings and played an important role in uncovering the persistence of racial discrimination, along with the struggles to improve social conditions for black and brown people throughout the country. We conducted 39 interviews with more than 110 hours of recordings, which are archived at the CPDOC research center of the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro. This research enabled us to learn more about the importance of this social and political movement, and to confirm persistent racism as one of the elements structuring Brazil’s huge social inequality—one of the largest in the world. And, as it happens in many other parts of the world, Brazil has long avoided open discussions of race and race relations.