Yahoo NewsRIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazil's president launched a national program to promote racial equality on Thursday, promising to grant land titles to the descendants of runaway slaves and promote a system of quotas at the nation's universities.
At a ceremony celebrating black consciousness day, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said blacks in poor rural regions earned a third of what whites do and likened the situation to "servitude so as not to say slavery."
"It's time for the country to face the truth hidden over four centuries: who pays the price of inequality in this country is the black woman, the black man, the black elderly, the black youth and the black children," Silva said.
The racial equality program announced Thursday — part of a land reform program already in effect — does not require congressional approval.
Silva spoke at a ceremony at Serra da Barriga, 1,000 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro, where the Quilombo de Palmares, a republic formed by runaway slaves, once stood.
Brazil celebrates black consciousness day on Nov. 20, the day runaway slave leader Zumbi died defending Quilombo de Palmares more than 300 years ago.
Palmares, which existed for nearly 100 years before being crushed by the military, was just the largest and most famous quilombo, as the areas where runaway slaves lived are known.
The government has documented the remnants of 743 quilombos around Brazil and Silva's program would grant land titles to those living in them.
He said his government would also conduct a nationwide survey to document any other quilombo remnants.
Silva noted that while Brazil has the largest number of black people of any nation outside Africa and second-largest number of black people in the world after Nigeria, they still make up a disproportionate number of the nation's poor.
While blacks make up 46 percent of Brazil's 175 million people, they represent 60 percent of the poor, he said.