University of Wisconsin Press, 1991 Paper: 978-0-299-13104-3 Library of Congress Classification F2631.A58 1991 Dewey Decimal Classification 981.6100496
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ABOUT THIS BOOK
For much of the twentieth century Brazil enjoyed an international reputation as a “racial democracy,” but that image has been largely undermined in recent decades by research suggesting the existence of widespread racial inequality. George Reid Andrews provides the first thoroughly documented history of Brazilian racial inequality from the abolition of slavery in 1888 up to the late 1980s, showing how economic, social, and political changes in Brazil during the last one hundred years have shaped race relations.
No laws of segregation or apartheid exist in Brazil, but by looking carefully at government policies, data on employment, mainstream and Afro-Brazilian newspapers, and a variety of other sources, Andrews traces pervasive discrimination against Afro-Brazilians over time. He draws his evidence from the country’s largest and most economically important state, São Paulo, showing how race relations were affected by its transformation from a plantation-based economy to South America’s most urban, industrialized society.
The book focuses first on Afro-Brazilians' entry into the agricultural and urban working class after the abolition of slavery. This transition, Andrews argues, was seriously hampered by state policies giving the many European immigrants of the period preference over black workers. As immigration declined and these policies were overturned in the late 1920s, black laborers began to be employed in agriculture and industry on nearly equal terms with whites. Andrews then surveys efforts of blacks to move into the middle class during the 1900s. He finds that informal racial solidarity among middle-class whites has tended to exclude Afro-Brazilians from the professions and other white-collar jobs.
Andrews traces how discrimination throughout the century led Afro-Brazilians to mobilize, first through the antislavery movement of the 1880s, then through such social and political organizations of the 1920s and 1930s as the Brazilian Black Front, and finally through the anti-racism movements of the 1970s and 1980s. These recent movements have provoked much debate among Brazilians over their national image as a racial democracy. It remains to be seen, Andrews concludes, whether that debate will result in increased opportunities for black Brazilians.
Winner of the 1993 Arthur P. Whitaker Prize
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY George Reid Andrews is professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
REVIEWS
“Andrews’s impressive study of race relations in Brazil’s largest city is based on exhaustive archival research as well as on close reading of dozens of specialized publications, including newspapers published in the Afro-Brazilian community. Andrews, author of The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900, a pathbreaking work on blacks in Argentina, brings to his work a comparative outlook and a sensitivity to the issue of race in its broadest social and cultural context. . . . The book is invaluable not only for historians of Brazil but also for anyone wanting to learn about the dynamics of race in changing societies.”—Choice
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1.
Introduction
Part 1.
Workers
Chapter 2.
Slavery and Emancipation, 1800–1890
Chapter 3.
Immigration, 1890–1930
Chapter 4.
Working, 1920–1960
Part 2.
The Middle Class
Chapter 5.
Living in a Racial Democracy, 1900–1940
Chapter 6.
Blacks Ascending, 1940–1988
Chapter 7.
Organizing, 1945–1988
Part 3.
Past, Present, Future
Chapter 8.
One Hundred Years of Freedom: May 13, 1988
Chapter 9.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Appendix A.
Population of São Paulo State, 1800–1980
Appendix B.
Brazilian Racial Terminology
Appendix C.
Personnel Records at the Jafet and São Paulo Tramway, Light, and Power Companies
Glossary
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
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University of Wisconsin Press, 1991 Paper: 978-0-299-13104-3
For much of the twentieth century Brazil enjoyed an international reputation as a “racial democracy,” but that image has been largely undermined in recent decades by research suggesting the existence of widespread racial inequality. George Reid Andrews provides the first thoroughly documented history of Brazilian racial inequality from the abolition of slavery in 1888 up to the late 1980s, showing how economic, social, and political changes in Brazil during the last one hundred years have shaped race relations.
No laws of segregation or apartheid exist in Brazil, but by looking carefully at government policies, data on employment, mainstream and Afro-Brazilian newspapers, and a variety of other sources, Andrews traces pervasive discrimination against Afro-Brazilians over time. He draws his evidence from the country’s largest and most economically important state, São Paulo, showing how race relations were affected by its transformation from a plantation-based economy to South America’s most urban, industrialized society.
The book focuses first on Afro-Brazilians' entry into the agricultural and urban working class after the abolition of slavery. This transition, Andrews argues, was seriously hampered by state policies giving the many European immigrants of the period preference over black workers. As immigration declined and these policies were overturned in the late 1920s, black laborers began to be employed in agriculture and industry on nearly equal terms with whites. Andrews then surveys efforts of blacks to move into the middle class during the 1900s. He finds that informal racial solidarity among middle-class whites has tended to exclude Afro-Brazilians from the professions and other white-collar jobs.
Andrews traces how discrimination throughout the century led Afro-Brazilians to mobilize, first through the antislavery movement of the 1880s, then through such social and political organizations of the 1920s and 1930s as the Brazilian Black Front, and finally through the anti-racism movements of the 1970s and 1980s. These recent movements have provoked much debate among Brazilians over their national image as a racial democracy. It remains to be seen, Andrews concludes, whether that debate will result in increased opportunities for black Brazilians.
Winner of the 1993 Arthur P. Whitaker Prize
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY George Reid Andrews is professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
REVIEWS
“Andrews’s impressive study of race relations in Brazil’s largest city is based on exhaustive archival research as well as on close reading of dozens of specialized publications, including newspapers published in the Afro-Brazilian community. Andrews, author of The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900, a pathbreaking work on blacks in Argentina, brings to his work a comparative outlook and a sensitivity to the issue of race in its broadest social and cultural context. . . . The book is invaluable not only for historians of Brazil but also for anyone wanting to learn about the dynamics of race in changing societies.”—Choice
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1.
Introduction
Part 1.
Workers
Chapter 2.
Slavery and Emancipation, 1800–1890
Chapter 3.
Immigration, 1890–1930
Chapter 4.
Working, 1920–1960
Part 2.
The Middle Class
Chapter 5.
Living in a Racial Democracy, 1900–1940
Chapter 6.
Blacks Ascending, 1940–1988
Chapter 7.
Organizing, 1945–1988
Part 3.
Past, Present, Future
Chapter 8.
One Hundred Years of Freedom: May 13, 1988
Chapter 9.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Appendix A.
Population of São Paulo State, 1800–1980
Appendix B.
Brazilian Racial Terminology
Appendix C.
Personnel Records at the Jafet and São Paulo Tramway, Light, and Power Companies
Glossary
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE