Benedita da Silva, known as Bené, was born on April 26, 1942, in the Praia do Pinto slum, and shortly after her birth moved to the Chapéu Mangueira hill in Leme, Rio de Janeiro, where she lived for 57 years. With degrees in Nursing and Social Work, she served as a constituent assembly representative in 1988 for the PT, as a senator, and as Brazil’s first Black governor. She served as Minister of Labor and Social Assistance in Lula’s first administration, where she helped create the world’s largest anti-hunger program, Bolsa Família.An activist in the Black and Women’s Movements, she authored the bill that designated Zumbi dos Palmares as a national hero; established November 20 as “National Black Consciousness Day”; and proposed other bills promoting the inclusion of Black people in television productions, films, and commercials. During the world’s greatest public health crisis, Benedita da Silva authored the Aldir Blanc Cultural Emergency Law, which assists cultural professionals unable to work due to the pandemic. She also created special police stations to investigate racial crimes, established minimum quotas in higher education institutions, made the inclusion of ethnicity a mandatory field on official documents, and signed the law against harassment and in favor of labor rights extended to domestic workers.

A career that reflects the struggles of all those who are excluded and who fight for a more socially just and democratic society. A figure of extreme importance for the construction of the country’s political landscape. To tell her story is to tell the story of the advances of progressive agendas in the fields of women’s rights and the Black movement in Brazil.

Federal Deputy Benedita da Silva: Her work has been a benchmark in public policy, particularly in the areas of Human Rights, Religious Freedom, Peripheral Communities, Feminist Movements, Racial Movements, Arts, and Culture.