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Sep 7, 2023 · In the early 20th century, a captivating yet heart-wrenching story unfolded, centered around two albino African-American brothers, George and Willie Muse. Their lives took a dramatic turn when they were plucked from a Virginia farm and thrust into the bright lights of the circus world.
- How George and Willie Muse Were Abducted by The Circus
- Forced to Perform as ‘Eko and Iko’
- The Muse Brothers Return to Truevine
- Justice For The ‘Ambassadors from Mars’
George and Willie Muse were the eldest of five children born to Harriett Muse in the small community of Truevine on the edge of Roanoke, Virginia. Against almost impossible odds, both boys were born with albinism, leaving their skin exceptionally vulnerable to the harsh Virginia sun. Both also had a condition known as nystagmus, which often accompa...
In the early 20th century, the circus was a major form of entertainment for most of America. Sideshows, “freak shows,” or demonstrations of unusual skills like sword swallowing, cropped up on roadsides all over the country. Candy Shelton realized that in an era when disabilities were treated as curiosities and Black people had little to no rights t...
In 1922, Shelton took the Muse brothers to the Ringling Bros. Circus, drawn by a better offer. Shelton shaped their blond hair into outlandish locks that shot out of the tops of their heads, dressed them in colorful, strange garments, and claimed they’d been found in the wreckage of a spaceship in the Mojave Desert. On Oct. 14, 1927, George and Wil...
Candy Shelton didn’t give up the Muse brothers so easily, but neither did Harriett Muse. Ringling sued the Muses, claiming that they’d deprived the circus of two valuable earners with legally binding contracts. But Harriett Muse shot back with the help of a local lawyer and won a series of lawsuits confirming her sons’ right to payment and visits h...
- Morgan Dunn
Jul 10, 2018 · The two brothers were kidnapped as boys in Truevine, Virginia, in 1899 by bounty hunters and forced into the circus. Upon their capture, they were falsely told that their mother was dead and...
Oct 18, 2016 · And it's the true story of two albino African-American brothers, George and Willie Muse, who spent much of their lives in freak shows in the first half of the 20th century.
Oct 22, 2016 · In 1899, George and Willie Muse, then nine and six, were abducted from Truevine, Virginia, and forced into the circus. The brothers were both albinos born of African-American parents at a time in...
Jan 12, 2018 · These African American brothers, born albinos to a poor sharecropper’s family, were kidnaped from the tobacco fields in rural Virginia. For decades, they were displayed as freaks in the circuses that crisscrossed America for many years.
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Oct 18, 2016 · Journalist Beth Macy talks about George and Willie Muse, black albino brothers who were born in the Jim Crow South, kidnapped, and forced to become circus freaks.
