Brazil Creates Rights Medal Named After Black Writer, Replacing Princess

Brazil’s leftist government on Monday abolished a human rights medal that former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had named after the daughter of the country’s last monarch, replacing it with a prize named after a Black writer and abolitionist.

The medal will now be named after Luiz Gama, who was a leader of the movement to abolish slavery in Brazil in the 19th Century.

When slavery was finally abolished in 1888, Brazil was a monarchy ruled by the Braganca family of Portuguese origin, but the monarch was ill, so his daughter Isabel signed the abolition decree.

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