About the Event
Black Lives Matter in Latin America
Directed by Gladys Mitchell- Walthour
Friday, January 31 // 7:00 PM
Rice Cinema, Sewall Hall 301
This documentary includes footage of protests to combat police brutality and harassment of Afro-Brazilians and some key leaders in the fight for human rights in Brazil. Dr. Gladys Mitchell-Walthour discusses the history of Black resistance since the time of enslavement as well as the need for Afro-descendants to come together to strategize methods to combat racism as a collective.Douglas Belchior, co-founder of Uneafro is interviewed and discusses the marginalization of Afro-Brazilians and his involvement in challenging racism and repression. Marcelle Decothé, an activist from Rio de Janeiro also discusses injustice against Black Brazilians and how social justice can be brought about. Monica Cunha, a city Rio de Janeiro councilwoman and leader of Movimento Moleque, discusses the killing of her son at the hands of police, how she fights against police brutality and preserves the memory of her son and other victims of police violence. Renata Souza, Rio de Janeiro state legislator was interviewed and discusses the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement in bringing international attention to police brutality. Brazilian political scientist, Cloves Oliveira discusses the importance of the Black Coalition for Rights and its role in saving Brazilian democracy.
Black women leaders from Argentina and Peru discuss blackness and the challenges Blacks face in their respective countries. Anny Loango, who is an Afro-Colombian woman who lives in Argentina, discusses her role as both an activist and academic to make visible the challenges Blacks in Argentina face. Mariela Noles Cotito discusses similarities between Blacks in Peru and the United States. To create Black solidarity, Dr. KC Morrison, a Black American political scientist discusses the Race and Democracy project, an exchange program for Black Brazilian and Black American scholars he helped create with the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. Other scholars such as Tanya Saunders, a scholar of Cuban Hip Hop also discusses the need for connection between African descendants throughout the Diaspora. Other scholars featured are Artemesia Stanberry who is a political scientist and who fought for 20 years to prove her cousin’s innocence as he was wrongfully convicted and Emmanuel Oritsejafor, a Nigerian political scientist, discusses his great grandfather who was captured from the Dahomey Kingdom and enslaved in Brazil. Finally, John Thomas, a political scientist discusses the situation of Blacks in Peru and the importance of BLM. This documentary tells the story of the violence and marginalization Black people face throughout Latin America, the efforts they have taken to overcome them, including solidarity as well as displays moments of joy when connecting with each other.
About the Executive Producer
Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, PhD is Professor and Dan T. Blue Endowed Chair of Political Science at North Carolina Central University. Dr. Mitchell-Walthour studies Brazilian racial politics, affirmative action, and the intersection of social welfare, race, and gender. In 2024, she published the co-edited volume, “Black Lives Matter in Latin America” (Palgrave MacMillan). In 2023, she published “The Politics of Survival: The Political Opinions of Social Welfare Beneficiaries in Brazil and the USA” (Columbia University Press). She is the author of “The Politics of Blackness” (2018, Cambridge University Press). Mitchell-Walthour is the past president of the Brazilian Studies Association (2018-2020) and has been the National Co-coordinator of the US Network for Democracy in Brazil since 2019. She is a Board Member of the Washington Brazil Office. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including the Fulbright (2022). In 2014, she was the Lemann Scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. She holds the PhD in political science from the University of Chicago, an MPP from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and a BA from Duke University.
Free and open to the public.
Discounted parking available in Founder’s Court lot, $6 flat fee, credit card required.
