Archive and Memory of the Black People

Abstract

This work analizes the documentation produced by the Municipal Council of Black people in Brazil, both as archival documents and as a rescue innitiative of blacks’ memory. For this purpose, we used the interdisciplinary basis of archival science, the concept of social memory and the history of black movements in Brazil. Legal aspects of Black People Council foundation were raised to provide an understanding of the relations it established with the local government and the municipal city hall. The study of Black movements was fundamental to understand the constitution of this archive, which ensures, in some way, the identity and social participation of black people, beyond the reminiscence of past events from the black people’ group experience. Thus we perceive how the black movement becomes official and legal through the documentation associated to local government; and, in the same way, we observe how their official memory is constituted.