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.

See the photos and meet more sideshow performers who drew gawking crowds just a century ago — and go inside their fascinating true story — 

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 is as harrowing as that of George and Willie Muse.

In the early 1900s, the two Black brothers were reportedly abducted from their family’s tobacco farm in Virginia. Desired for show business because they were both born with albinism, the Muse brothers traveled against their will with a promoter named James Shelton, who billed them as “Eko and Iko, the Ambassadors from Mars.”

All the while, however, their mother battled racist institutions and indifference to free them. Through deception, cruelty, and many court battles, the Muse family succeeded in reuniting with one another. This is their story.