This article discusses the difference between the official account on the memory of slavery in Brazil and how contemporary black movement’s leaders, notably in Rio de Janeiro, see the Afro-Brazilians’ situation and living conditions. This movement, which seeks to reveal in public space the memory of slavery and its consequences, claims Brazilian State and society to recognize not only the miserable conditions under which former slaves were left after the abolition of slavery, but the contribution of the slaves to the construction of Brazilian society, economy and culture and also that Afro-Brazilians are still the object of racism. If in today’s Brazil, the public debate on reparations comprises a legal aspect of rectification, by creating measures aiming to provide effective equality, this discussion also takes the form of symbolic fight, in which one of the objectives is to build a positive image of the Afro-Brazilian culture.