The Law 10.639/2003, since it was enacted, engendered a new dynamic in schools. Urged by statutory stipulations, managers and teachers formulated several alternatives to cope with the rules that introduced the themes of African History and Afro-Brazilian Culture in school curricula of elementary school. The analysis of those initiatives show more than meets the agents' eyes about the ways they cultivate those proposed themes. It also enables a peculiar framework of the school environment, it's virtues and vices. From the analysis of six schools in four States of the Brazilian Northern Region, the article demonstrates that improvisation and "good intentions" surpass, by far, the investment in research and continuing education, to confront the ethnic-racial issue. The positive results, very important for the students, however, do not hide the weakness of such initiatives.
Education; school; ethnic-racial issue; scholar knowledge; Northern region
