‘Vem Marchar com a Gente’/Come March with Us¹

The cover to volume 14, number 1, of Meridians features a powerful photograph of Dona Tiana (Sebastiana Geralda Ribeiro da Silva), a grassroots activist from the historically Black territory Quilombo Carrapatos da Tabatinga in the state of Minas Gerais, delivering an impassioned speech during the first-ever national Marcha das Mulheres Negras contra o Racismo e a Violência e pelo Bem Viver (Black Women’s March against Racism and Violence and for Living Well, hereafter the Marcha), held in Brasília on November 18, 2015.² The actual march on the nation’s capital, which drew between 5,000 and 20,000 women and a few hundred men from across Brazil, was the culmination of an unprecedented nationwide mobilizational process spanning several years (beginning in late 2011, the U.N.’s International Year for People of African descent) and encompassing all regions of this country of continental proportions. Considered a major turning point and veritable watershed in...