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Traveling sideshows and their exploitation of people with disabilities spread across the U.S.

1937

The Story of Disability Justice
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By 1937, there are over 300 traveling sideshows, known as "carnivals" or "midways." They are often attached to state fairgrounds and display exploitative and exoticizing performances of people with disabilities. They are often featured alongside dwindling "medicine shows," which soon decline due to the rise of patents, and "Wild West" shows that portray Indigenous people as "savages."