In July 1971, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, Grupo Palmares, a small cultural association, was set up and dedicated to studying and promoting the history of the negros and mestizos (blacks and mixed), and organizing lectures and artistic presentations to that end. The association's aim was to promote racial consciousness and to support the social and political inclusion of those groups. Four months later, on 20 November 1971, Grupo Palmares proposed a public celebration of the Quilombo dos Palmares, the most famous maroon community in Brazilian history, and, by extension, a celebration of its leader, Zumbi dos Palmares. In 1976, the group published Mini História do Negro Brasileiro, the first book of black Brazilian history (Campos, 2006). It did not take long for the experience of Grupo Palmares to spread among other AfroBrazilian intellectuals elsewhere in Brazil. The group ended its political activity in 1978, but its influence continued and from 2002, other groups started to celebrate Zumbi dos Palmares around Brazil. In 2011, a law was approved to make 20 November Dia Nacional da Consciência Negra (National Black Consciousness Day).  
Turner argues that the influence of the movement that started in Rio Grande do Sul was important among Afro-Brazilian students in Rio de Janeiro, who, by 1974, started to demand a course on Afro-Brazilian studies, something that was delayed for decades because of a lack of academic specialists in the field (Turner, op. cit.).  
Worldwide events, such as the victory of anti-colonialist forces in Angola and Mozambique and the subsequent independence of those countries, moved Brazilian intellectuals to support first the independence movement and later