The Vaccine Revolt of 1904, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A review of the literature on the Vaccine Revolt shows that it continues to be treated in an overly simplistic manner as a “structure” subjected to some form of regulation, from which its dynamics can be explained and its “root causes” identified. It is possible to forge a new, more cautious historiographical path, seeking to view this “structure” as a rhizome, as a loosely connected ensemble that exists under unstable circumstances whose precarious (dis)order cannot be grasped in its complexity by a reductionist analysis. Another historiographical approach that can shed new light on the popular revolt of 1904 situates it in the context of its links to the history of the smallpox vaccine and its diffusion. Viewing the episode as equally relevant to the history of science and technology, this article proposes to “vaccinate the Vaccine Revolt”—that is, to reintroduce the smallpox vaccine as a protagonist in the events—highlighting the need to treat the revolt as a chapter of a sociotechnical history; after all, what could be more sociotechnical than a technoscientific artifact that gave its name to a popular revolt? This is a history of scientists convinced of the superiority of their technical knowledge and of their right to exercise their power for the good of the public, who would be obliged to comply; most of all, it is a history without the problematic distinctions between content and context, between rationality and irrationality, between science and society. It is also a history of the popular mobilization on the streets of downtown Rio de Janeiro, exemplified by the vigorous resistance mounted in the working-class neighborhood of Saúde under the command of the Black man known as Prata Preta, which serves as a counterpoint to top-down historical narratives more concerned with the comings and goings of White political elites and coup-plotting, positivist-inspired generals, marked by the symptomatic exclusion of Black and working-class actors. It also serves to emphasize the symptomatic absence of the voice of Prata Preta, who was imprisoned and summarily banished without any due process. The fact that he was silenced has made it easier to construct allegories about “the people,” portraying them as heroic opponents of elite oppression or the exact opposite: an antiheroic, dangerous, and disposable rabble. Among the entourage of characters who have been silenced, one should also note the absence of women’s voices; although vaccine opponents rallied around the claim that they were defending against the “violation” of women’s bodies, nothing was heard from women’s mouths. Finally, revisiting the history of the Vaccine Revolt offers another opportunity to unmask the project of an authoritarian political, military, and scientific elite, with a particular focus on Oswaldo Cruz, one of Brazil’s greatest champions of science. In the name of science and public health, that elite envisioned a modern Brazil, while remaining ignorant of the daily nightmare lived by the vast majority of the Black, poor, and marginalized population.

“Remember, this is Brightmoor”: Historical Violence, Neighborhood Experiences, and the Hysteresis of Street Life

Drawing on three years of fieldwork, this article explains the emergence and persistence of two conflicting styles of street life in Brightmoor, a depopulated, majority Black, poor Detroit neighborhood facing early gentrification. As most longtimers were inured to historical neighborhood violence, they tended to act vigilantly in public, even after recent crime declines. By contrast, White newcomers, most of whom had moved from middle-class neighborhoods, often defied vigilance such as by organizing a farmers' market across from an open-air drug market. They mobilized aspirational public life as a means for changing the neighborhood and end in itself. To explain these conflicting styles, this article theorizes the cultural mechanism of “ the hysteresis of street life.” Styles of street life, shaped by residents' unequal historical neighborhood experiences, tend to linger under conditions of gradual neighborhood change. It also shows how the hysteresis of street life may contribute to the reproduction of inequalities.

Cross-dressing and Transgressing: The Queer Body in Madame Satã

In Karim Aïnouz’s debut feature film Madame Satã (2002), the protagonist yearns to be a cross-dressing performer. Based on the historical figure João Francisco dos Santos, the protagonist is black, poor, gay, and a criminal in the Brazil of the 1930s. An examination of his body as a nexus of these factors and the film’s portrayal of it in the context of queer theory, film history, and social discourses of gender, race, and class and in cinematic terms demonstrates that, while he is able to express his fluid gender identity temporarily through performance, the protagonist is unable to escape his social position as regulated by the intersectionality of his gender identity with other factors. En el primer largometraje de Karim Aïnouz, Madame Satã (2002), el protagonista anhela ser un artista travesti. Basado en la figura histórica de João Francisco dos Santos, dicho protagonista es negro, pobre, homosexual y criminal en el Brasil de la década de 1930. El artículo analiza su cuerpo como nexo entre estos factores y la manera en que es representado en la película a partir de una perspectiva teórica queer, de la historia del cine y los discursos sociales de género, raza y clase, así como de la técnica cinematográfica. Si por un lado el personaje es capaz de expresar su fluida identidad de género temporalmente a través de la interpretación, por otro es incapaz de escapar su posición social, la cual está regulada por la interseccionalidad entre su identidad de género y otros factores.

Prologue

This history of the Urban League of Pittsburgh (ULP) examines the organization’s century of social service and activism in the Greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area. It complements existing studies of the Urban League movement and deepens our understanding of the Urban League as a national phenomenon. Most important, this book addresses the debate over the Urban League movement’s impact on the lives of poor and working-class blacks as they made the transition from farm to city. Some scholars and popular writers argue that the Urban League movement was largely a conservative force that rarely improved the lives of the black poor. Others defend the Urban League as a progressive interracial social movement that eased the painful impact of migration, labor exploitation, and poor living conditions on thousands of southern black newcomers to the city....

The Drug Policy in the Americas From a Gender Perspective

In the early 21st century, the number of women incarcerated in Latin America for drug-related offenses has increased dramatically. Many women are engaging in drug trafficking for different reasons, and in most cases, they play inferior roles in the drug supply chain, working as couriers or carrying drugs inside their bodies, which make them vulnerable to the justice system. This increase in female incarceration is one of the consequences of a repressive and prohibitive framework against the use and trafficking of drugs in the Americas. The “War on Drugs” policy was developed in the 1970s by the U.S. government, almost 50 years ago. This policy spread a regional fight against drug use and trafficking, which was reinforced by the United Nations Conventions on Drugs and committees of the Organization of American States. Even though some international and regional organizations and government institutions have been alarmed by the increase in female incarceration rates, the discussions and documents concerning this issue have some gaps. As analyzed by a feminist and gender literature, stereotypes about femininity persist. The official documents consider women mere victims in the drug world and do not debate their reasons for entering criminality, as an economic necessity, for example. In the same sense, little effort has been made by governments to change the actual repressive anti-drug policy. Focusing just on the lowest level of the drug supply chain, the “War on Drugs” policy continues to drive many people, especially women, younger, and black poor people, to jail.

In the State’s Shadow of Fair Housing: D.C. (White) Business Leaders and their Revanchist Desires

This article traces D.C. White business leaders’ advocacy of (low-income) Black suburban relocation and White upper-class resettlement in D.C.’s central neighborhoods in the 1960s and 1970s. By examining the organizational papers and memos of meetings and policy documents from the Federal City Council, a D.C. nonprofit advocacy organization for the city’s leading business and real estate leaders, I document how predominantly White business leaders appropriated fair housing and regional fair share political stances to articulate revanchist desires. These leaders’ revanchist rhetoric depicted the Black poor—especially the single Black mother with children—as the primary figure of neighborhood blight and domestic deviance. In the wake of these revanchist politics, low-income Black mothers remained principal victims of pro-mobility policies and gentrification agendas that forced them to continually move to support demolition or redevelopment. This article affirms low-income Black mother activists’ political support for placemaking and low-cost, family-friendly, and well-maintained communities.

Folk Religion and the Medical Engineering of Rural Black Laborers

In the study of American religion, scholars use the category folk to illuminate the religious worlds of populations on the margins of society. The category has been deployed to valorize the unique cultures of populations while extending the meaning and function of religion beyond conventional markers. Judith Weisenfeld’s religio-racial concept underscores how different state bureaucracies played an important role in the daily religious worlds of Black laypeople. This article applies Weisenfeld’s contribution to American religion by demonstrating that the folk category also sheds light on the agency of state actors and networks. Using the 1931 Macon County, Alabama, venereal disease program, I will argue that the folk category was part of the state’s biomedical campaign to regulate the daily religious cultures of the Black poor.

Abolitionism and the Back-to-Africa Movement in Britain: The Sierra Leone Experiment

The article focuses on the settlement of freed black slaves from England and Nova Scotia in Sierra Leone. As the eighteenth century drew to a close, plans were made for the “repatriation” of impoverished migrants of African descent to their “ancestral” land. Such plans were contextually defined by the abolitionist movement in Britain. Abolitionism gained exceptional momentum in the country that played a leading part in the transatlantic slave trade at that time. The movement aimed to end both the slave trade and slavery. The article investigates the activities of the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor and especially the role of the prominent British philanthropist and abolitionist Granville Sharp (1735–1813), who made significant efforts to bring the “repatriation” plans to fruition. I argue that the Sierra Leone project was an ambivalent experiment, which should be interpreted in the light of both humanitarian compassion and imperial interests: if, at first, it was premised upon idealism and religious fervour, the desire to set foot in west Africa and to set up a colony there subsequently prevailed. For some Britons, sending impoverished free blacks to distant shores was also an opportunity to expel them from their own “white” society. In this sense, the “repatriation” of Africans was most likely to occur in the form of deportation, a form that suggests the restrictive regime of penal colonies, such as Australia.