In December 1980, the Brazilian artist Abdias do Nascimento wrote a seminal essay titled “Quilombismo: An Afro-Brazilian Political Alternative.” A sweeping declaration of Black rights, it called for an end to Eurocentrism. Nascimento chose the quilombos—communities of escaped slaves that formed in Brazil, beginning in the early–16th century and continuing until 1888—as historical beacons of equality and democracy. That idea, alongside the Négritude and Garveyism movements, underpins this monumental exhibition. Twelve of the museum’s galleries are filled with 350 works by artists such as Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Beauford Delaney, and Kerry James Marshall. Malangatana Ngwenya’s jarring prison drawings and Chris Ofili’s Union Black (the Union Jack in pan-African colors) are among the many powerful pieces in this riveting exploration. —Elena Clavarino