George and willie muse series#

The bond between Black parents and their children has been constantly abused in Western culture by whites: throughout the slave era when children were sold from their mothers through the Jim Crow era when the government denied parents the right to give their child an equal education and even today as black parents are imprisoned at an alarmingly high rate for non-violent crimes, leaving suffering children to develop in a broken home.

Like the Muse brothers, Black children have been stolen from their parents throughout American history. They were not respected as human beings and this was a trend for the treatment of Blacks in the Jim Crow South, but this exploitation within entertainment took it to another level. The boys were treated like animals because of their ethnicity. Their being taken and held captive for the benefit of white promoters or the gawking eyes of spectators revealed the dark side of circus performing. The boys, originally exploited, were later admired for their unintentional role in human rights. Both never married, the older brother, George passed away in 1971 while Willie lived to be 108 passing away in 2001.

They finally retired in 1961 after working with Clyde Betty, a famous lion tamer and animal trainer from Ohio. After winning the case and reuniting with their family the boys, who’d been raised in the circus, went back to performing in their 30s and worked with the Dreamland Circus sideshow in Coney Island touring through Europe and the Far East. She was devastated by the fact that they were stolen as slaves, she hired a lawyer and attempted to sue for $100,000. After years of being sold and marketed like animals, finally in 1927 their tour stopped in their hometown and after 18 years of searching their mother Harriet Muse was reunited with her sons. They were dressed in tuxedos to justify the diplomatic title. After being sold into the Ringling Brothers circus they were promoted as the “Ambassadors from Mars” and the “Men from Mars”. Barnes Circus as the “White Ecuadorian Cannibals” and then the “Sheep Headed Cannibals”.

George and willie muse series#

They grew their hair to be styled in long white locs and they were marketed under a series of different acts. In addition to never being paid for their work, the boys were sold among promoters like slaves. After being taken from their mother they were told she was dead, forced to work for the circus and placed into the “human oddities” segment without pay for over 18 years. At the ages of 6 and 9 years old they were kidnapped by a bounty hunter working for a sideshow promoter. The story of the Muse Brothers, George and Willie Muse, is an account of two albino black brothers living in the Jim Crow South of Roanoke, Virginia during the 1800s. This was a story I’d read about a few years ago but never got the chance to fully delve into. The circus wasn’t always a welcoming place for Blacks, in fact there have been instances where we were on the ‘dangerous’ and ‘abnormal’ side of the rink, lumped together with the animals and the acrobats. The circus is fun because there we have a chance to come face to face with abnormalities that we don’t get to encounter during our daily lives. The circus is a place where we can be amazed by the miraculous ability of the human body, dazzled by acrobatics and pushed to the edge of comfort by the threat of danger.