In the early 1920s, a group of black Americans decided to leave behind the violence and racism they faced in the United States and start a new life in Brazil.
This was a time when Brazil was looking for immigrants, mainly to work on coffee plantations. Attracted by advertisements published by the Brazilian government itself in newspapers abroad, Americans hoped to find a “racial paradise”, where there would be no prejudice and everyone would have opportunities.
But when the Brazilian government learned that this group of immigrants was made up of black people, there was a mobilization to prevent their entry into the country, and the subject began to dominate debates in the press and in Congress.
Concerned with maintaining the image of “racial democracy” that Brazil cultivated with pride, supporters of the veto claimed that Americans were not being rejected because they were black, but because they could disrupt public order. The motivation would therefore not be racial, but national security.
This episode is one of several analyzed by historian Ousmane Power-Greene, a professor at Clark University in Massachusetts, in a book that will address the experiences of black Americans who left the United States between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. 20th century to settle in other countries.
“Some studies are dedicated to black Americans who emigrated to Liberia, others to those who went to Canada, or Mexico, or Haiti. But there is no picture that encompasses all [esses movimentos]”, says Power-Greene to BBC News Brazil. “My aim is to tell the story of the emigration of black Americans more broadly.”
Brazilian romance
If in Brazil, at least according to what was imagined about Brazil internationally, people of all races lived together in harmony, in the USA the reality faced by the black population at the beginning of the 20th century was quite different.
The period of Reconstruction, which began after the end of the American Civil War (1861-65), had resulted in advances for black Americans. But soon the conquests began to be reversed and, in the 1920s, this portion of the population had already lost several of the rights conquered after the end of slavery.
Episodes of racial violence and lynchings spread across the country, and southern states, which had lost the war, began to implement strict segregation laws.
“From the 1880s onwards, conditions for black Americans began to deteriorate, with high levels of violence,” notes Power-Greene.
The historian points out that, at the time, the majority of the black population continued to live in the South. Faced with increasing violence and restrictions, they initiated what would become the “Great Migration”, a movement in which millions left the region and moved to other parts of the country in search of better conditions.
In this context, many began to consider leaving the United States for African countries or even Latin America, where they hoped to be able to enjoy full citizenship.
One of the main names in the movement that advocated the return to Africa was the political activist and black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, founder of the Unia (Universal Association for Black Progress and the League of African Communities), which in the 1920s had a presence in more than 40 countries.
Power-Greene notes that as the project to send black Americans to Africa began to face obstacles from various colonial powers, UNIA members began to focus on other parts of the world, including Brazil.
“In that period, there was the idea among black Americans that places like Brazil still preserved a lot of the African way of being, of culture, of religion”, says Power-Greene. “So there was a romanticization of Brazil.”
‘Unlimited opportunities’ in Brazil
At the same time that many black Americans were considering leaving their country, the Brazilian government was announcing in foreign newspapers the desire to receive immigrants and the promise of work, benefits and even subsidies for families to settle in Brazil.
Since the end of the 19th century, Brazil has sought to attract immigrants to work in agriculture and also to help settle remote areas in the interior. In the following decades, millions of Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Japanese, Syrians and Lebanese, among others, arrived in the country.
In the study “In Search of the Afro-American ‘Eldorado’: Attempts by North American Blacks to Enter Brazil in the 1920s” ), from 1988, historians Teresa Meade and Gregory Alonso Pirio listed several examples of advertisements on the topic published in the black American press.
In 1920, the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper of the city of Baltimore detailed the offer of airfare, accommodation and long-term credit to workers and farmers willing to settle in Brazil.
According to the newspaper, Brazil offered “unlimited opportunities”, without racial segregation and with a population that had more indigenous, blacks and mestizos than whites. “A black man can be president of Brazil without provoking more comment than the election of a white man here [nos Estados Unidos]”, said the newspaper.
In 1921, in articles in the Chicago Defender, the main newspaper of the black press in the USA at the time, author ER James spoke about “plenty of opportunities in Brazil for all, regardless of race, creed or color”.
Historians point out that this type of message appealed to black Americans who were “disillusioned” with the chances of settling in Africa and “conditioned to see Brazil as a racial paradise.” This image had been projected abroad since the previous century, fueled by reports from foreigners who had visited Brazil.
As the Brazilian government did not publicize abroad its reluctance to accept black immigrants, articles in the US black press “mistakenly assumed that Brazil’s official appeal for American immigrants included blacks”.
‘Freedom and Wealth in a Land of Plenty’
It was against this backdrop that, in 1920, a group of black Americans from the city of Chicago created a company called the Brazilian-American Colonization Syndicate (Bacs) with the aim of buying land in Mato Grosso to establish agricultural colonies.
The company soon began running advertisements in major US black media outlets. One, reproduced by Meade and Pirio, asked, “Do you want freedom and wealth in a land of plenty? Opportunity and equality without limits?” And he concluded: “Then buy land in Brazil.”
Historians remember that arms of Unia, Garvey’s organization, were linked to the colonization project. They cite information passed on to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US federal police) by an informant that, at a Unia meeting, the founding “of a black republic in northern Brazil” had been mentioned.
But despite the desire to attract immigrants and the pride of Brazil’s image of racial tolerance abroad, Brazilian authorities had no intention of welcoming black families.
Historians point out that, at the time, there was an effort in Brazil to “whiten” the population. “They expected that, after several generations, black Brazilians and European immigrants would intermingle in such a way that a mixed-race, or ‘whitened’, population would predominate,” Meade and Pirio wrote in 1988.
Upon learning of BACS’s intention, the Brazilian authorities tried to prevent the project, vetoing land concessions and denying visa applications.
‘Division of races we don’t know’
The issue of black Americans generated controversy in Brazil, at a time when there was already a great debate in the country about immigration, including Europeans. In July 1921, federal deputies Cincinato Braga (SP) and Andrade Bezerra (PE) presented a bill that prohibited the immigration of black people.
The proposal even received a favorable opinion from the Instituto dos Advogados do Brasil, but failed in the Chamber, classified by opponents as “an attack on the Constitution”, “the dignity of the black race” and “the Christian faith”. Critics pointed out that, “under the Constitution”, there were no “racial privileges” or distinction “between whites, blacks and pardos”.
In the Brazilian press, some commentators were harshly critical of the idea of ​​banning black Americans from immigrating to the country. Many, such as journalist Assis Chateubriand, considered the proposal unconstitutional.
Others, however, defended the bill, describing these immigrants as “undesirable” and citing “a long tradition of hatred” by the black population in the United States and the fear that they would introduce in Brazil “a division of races that we do not know”.
A commentator in Jornal do Brasil summarized the position of many who were in favor of vetoing the Americans: “not because they are black, but because they carry in their spirit, against white people, a feeling of hostility that will be, in our social order, a danger and an evil”.
Historians point out that there was also a fear that an activism inspired by ideas such as those defended by Marcus Garvey would gain strength in Brazil. At the time, black activists and organizations fighting racism and inequalities in Brazil were often severely repressed.
“Brazil’s great effort during the 1920s to prevent blacks from entering the country was not just part of the whitening strategy,” Meade and Pirio wrote in 1988. “Brazilian authorities at the time were very interested in preventing the entry of radical ideologies. that sought to raise racial awareness.”
Collaboration between USA and Brazil
Historians highlight the cooperation that existed at the time between Brazilian and American authorities.
In the 1920s, several black groups that defended emigration were watched by the US government, worried about militancy. In their study, Meade and Pirio reported that FBI agents passed on information about the activities of some of these groups to Brazilian consular officials.
At the end of 1921, discreetly, “immigration officers in Brazil advised consuls in the US to refuse visas to any black person.”
These rejections, often involving tourists, often sparked protests, but officials in both countries denied that there was any official agreement to prevent black Americans from traveling to Brazil.
Thus, throughout that decade, even as more and more news emerged about black Americans who were refused visas, the black US press continued to publish articles extolling the alleged absence of racial prejudice in Brazil.
Power-Greene recalls that, despite this episode, other immigration projects were successful, and black Americans established colonies in several countries.
The historian cites examples from the beginning of the 19th century, passing not only through Liberia and African countries, but also through Canada and the Dominican Republic, among other places in the Americas.
“Migration movements are usually full of disappointment and return”, he points out. “It’s important to recognize the lack of success. But it’s also important to understand the context. And to look at these stories collectively.”
‘This text was originally published in https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-6187898‘
