Benedita with children at the Chapéu Mangueira hillside community in the Leme District. Benedita da Silva (1942). A Rio de Janeiro City politician, she militates in women and black movements. In 1986 she was elected to the House of Representatives, an office to which she was reelected in 1990. In 1994 he was elected the first black Brazilian senator, as a member of PT (Workers’ Party). In 1998 she was elected deputy governor of Rio de Janeiro State on Antony Garotinho’s ticket. In 2002 she became the governor of Rio de Janeiro State. She was Minister of Social Action in the Lula Administration, from 2003 to January 2004.