This article aims to highlight the demands for rights and public policies formulated by one of the major Brazilian black movements of the last century - the Teatro Experimental do Negro (TEN) - , which was active at the time of the first great democratization movement in the country. The research was made upon primary sources, including play scripts, transcripts of testimonials and journalistic texts produced by TEN. The laws of the time were also analyzed to create the counterpoint. Texts of important intellectuals of the time targeted specifically to TEN and its media were also collected. As a result, this study showed: 1) the list of needs and rights in public policies formulated by TEN at the time; 2) the content and meaning originally claimed to those rights and public policy; 3) the relationship between TEN and international human rights movements at the time and the achievements obtained from this relationship; 4) some ideological orientations that were at the base of those discussions and achievements. The assumption is that the speech produced by this black movement, like others of the time, can serve as an important historical source for the critical analysis of laws and policies that have emerged since then to solve the race issue in Brazil.
Afro-Brazilian movements; citizenship; effectiveness; juridical neutrality