The purpose of this article is to discuss the relations that men and women of colour, activists and entrepreneurs, established between race, beauty and citizenship in Brazil and USA in the years after emancipation. By means of advertisements in newspapers and magazines of the black press of the two countries, I present three possible constructions of transnational histories focused on race and gender relations, and cosmetic. Believing in the intersectionality between gender, race and class, I propose the "black beauty" to be treated not only as a theme of study, but as a concept related to what I call social history of black beauty.
race; black beauty; post-abolition; transnational history; Brazil; USA
