George And Willie Muse, The Black Brothers Who Were Kidnapped By The Circus And Billed As ‘Martians’
George And Willie Muse, The Black Brothers Who Were Kidnapped By The Circus And Billed As ‘Martians’ When they were just ages six and nine, brothers George and Willie Muse were kidnapped from the tobacco fields of Roanoke, Virginia and forced into the circus. Born Black and albino in the 1890s, the Muse brothers were forced to grow out their hair and perform in sideshows as "The Men From Mars" — while their white managers made untold sums off of their humiliation. They only escaped this life one day in 1927 when their mother was in one of the circus tent crowds, recognized the sons who were taken from her, and took them back. Born with a rare form of albinism in the Jim Crow South, George and Willie Muse were spotted by a cruel showman and forced into a life of exploitation. In America’s era of sideshow “freaks” in the early 20th century, many people were bought, sold, and exploited like prizes for indifferent circus promotors. And perhaps no performer’s tale i