ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the strategies of Manuel Querino, who was a leader in Bahia and was representative of the fight against white supremacy that contested Eurocentric ideology and that, moreover, formulated a strategy to contest white supremacy economically. It aims to compare and contrast him with the Frente Negra Brasiliera (FNB), an organization that emerged in Sao Paulo, where people of African ancestry were a minority but became one of the most important black protest groups of that era. The chapter examines people of African ancestry were fighting color-blind racism using many of the same approaches that blacks were using in the US. The FNB’s success at first was a reaction to the blatant racism and unresponsiveness of the First Republic to the Afro-Brazilian community, which created a common solidarity among many Afro-Brazilians, both pardo and negro. The FNB’s major obstacle was the antidemocratic stance ultimately taken by Getulio Vargas with the formation of the Estado Novo in 1937.
