On Elegance and Decline: Urbanization and Race Relations in the Public Debate about Direita Street, São Paulo (1930-1950)

• Grant number: 24/06645-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Matheus Gato de Jesus
• Grantee: Renata Monteiro Siqueira
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

From an interdisciplinary perspective, this proposal investigates the racialization and racial formation processes - following sociologist Antonio Sergio Guimarães definition -, which constituted the urban changes in downtown São Paulo from the 1930s to the 1950s. From the 1960s on, such changes would be defined by the emic notion of "decline". Retroceding in time, I will ask how the articulation between race, class, gender, and generation gave meaning to the notions of "elegance" and "decline", which organized the public debate about downtown São Paulo and the disputes around that area. Between the 1930s and 1950s, investments for consolidating a "new" downtown at Oest from the Anhanbabaú valley coincided with the creation of a Black sociability in the original downtown. I chose as a case study the Direita Street, whose imaginary lies on its former "elegance", supposedly replaced by its physical and social "decline", since the 1930s. The street also became famous for concentrating Black people, especially due to the footing social practice, which led to racial discrimination, recorded, from different perspectives, in the hegemonic press, the Black press, activists' memories and studies on race relations from that time, notably the Unesco Project, under the coordination of sociologists Roger Bastide and Florestan Fernandes. Despite taking place at the same space and time, the relation between downtown's "decline" and racial discrimination have not been studied yet. My hypothesis is that such conflicts took part in owners and businessmen's effort in reframing social hierarchies, as they saw their properties and business devalue themselves. I will cross-examine sources from urban policy and the public debate on São Paulo downtown and others less explored by Brazilian urban history, namely the Black Press and intellectual archives. The research will also investigate the Black sociability and racial conflicts at Direita Street through primary sources, thus shedding new light over an event which has not been aim of specific studies yet, despite its symbolism within both Black social movements and the Academic debate on Race Relations.