Mãos negras tecendo a educação santoaleixense: uma análise sobre a implantação do maior grupo escolar do estado do Rio de Janeiro em Santo Aleixo, Magé (RJ) – 1954

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to weave together the fabrics that make up the history of the construction of the largest school group in the State of Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s. Located in Santo Aleixo, second district of Magé, the Joaquim Leitão School Group is the result of the struggle and resistance of the educator black Ruth Telles de Menezes and her sisters who encouraged the inclusion of workers' children in the educational process, as many gave up school to work alongside their parents in the factories, increasing their family's income. The research presents the relevance of Santo Aleixo in the industrialization process in Brazil and its broad socioeconomic development, despite such progress not being observed in education. Also noteworthy is the figure of Othon Linch Bezerra de Mello as a great businessman who invested in this audacious and profitable venture. The black hands that carried out all the groundwork for the implementation of the school group were made invisible by the history of Santo Aleixense education and one of the main objectives of this dissertation is to repair the erasure that structural racism has caused over the last sixty-nine years.