For Brazilians, the main historical
distinctions of the city are the driving out of the "Lampião", a gang
that plundered entire towns in the sertão during the 1920s and 1930s, and the
freeing of slaves five years before the Lei Áurea abolished slavery in all of
Brazil (1888). It was also the first city to give women the right to vote in
Brazil (Professor Celina Guimarães Viana cast the first vote in 1928), sparking
a movement among other cities and states in Brazil that culminated in the
official recognition of women's suffrage by the national government in 1934
