The Clarim da Alvorada: The Black Press and the Reconfiguration Process of Cultural Identity in the 1920s and 1930s in São Paulo

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the black press in São Paulo, having the black as a historical subject. The black population in the 1920s and 1930s did not have access to the vote, in addition, they were “pushed” to the hills and peripheries, surviving with the doctrine of scientific racism, added to a policy of whitening. The newspaper O Clarim da Alvorada, whose first edition is on January 6, 1924, is an example of how the black press positioned itself in the face of this racist society. The theoretical basis integrates the History of the Press and studies of Culture and Society. The research problem was to seek to understand how the reconfiguration of the black cultural identity took place in this clipping. The research method, therefore, is based on a case study and the analysis is justified by the fact that O Clarim was one of the most important newspapers in the history of the black press in São Paulo and Brazil. It is concluded that the culture within the different black communities of São Paulo was the great element that brought the black race together and the social spaces (clubs, balls, bars and streets) became cultural spaces. It is in this logic that we have the emergence of a black press, particularly newspapers, which spoke for and for the black.

Keywords: Black press; O Clarim da Alvorada; Newspaper; Communication History; Resistance; Culture.