Hundreds march on Black Awareness Day on Avenida Paulista

The 21st Black Consciousness March, held this Wednesday (20) on Avenida Paulista, was attended by hundreds of people in the first edition in which the date is celebrated as a national holiday. “We celebrate the first national holiday with great joy, for us it is a turning point”, said José Adão de Oliveira, 69 years old, co-founder of the Unified Black Movement (MNU), created in 1978, and one of the coordinators of the march in São Paulo. Hundreds march on Black Awareness Day on Avenida Paulista

Social worker Claudia Adão took her daughter to the movement for the first time. “I started going to the march when I was 15, they sold acarajé. And today is the first time I come with my daughter, post-pandemic, to celebrate this holiday achievement, but also to find out who Zumbi dos Palmares was, that we are part of a people that fights, that mobilizes”, he highlights.

“We march for the lives of our people, for freedom, for our rights that are not guaranteed. As long as there are still black men and women being murdered, having their rights violated, we will be marching”, he adds.

November 20th

The date of celebration refers to the day Zumbi dos Palmares was killed, in 1695. He led the resistance against slavery in a group of quilombos that existed for around a century – where today is the Alagoas city of União dos Palmares . Zumbi was killed by a Portuguese on November 20, 1695. The black leader left a legacy of resistance and building a society based on equality.