North Carolina, 1939
Compton, sharecropper, and his wife stripping and grading tobacco. He has a landlord who lives in Mebane, part of a very prosperous settlement.
(Source: Farm Security Administration Marion Post Wolcott photographer)

These are the Muse Brothers. Their biological names are George and Willie Muse. They were two albino brothers; the grandsons of former blàck American slàves and sons of a tobacco sharecroppers born in Roanoke, Virginia, in the 1890’s.

In 1899 George and Willie Muse were kidn@pped as boys in Truevine, Virginia by bounty hunters and were forced into the circus, labeled as “frèak show” performers. Upon their càpture, they were falsely told that their mother was dèad and that they would never return home .

Their owners showcased the brothers in circuses where they were exploited for profit in so-called freak shows. The Muse Brothers became famous across the United States as “Eko and Iko”, the “White Ecuadorian C@nnibals”, the “Sheep Headed Men”, the “Sheep Headed C@nnibals”, the “Ministers from Dahomey” and “Ambassadors from Mars”.

George and Willie were forced to grow their hair into massive “dreadlocks“ which together with their white skin and blùish eyes were exhibited as ràrities. They were also billed as “Darwin’s Missing Links” and “Nature’s Greatest Mistakes”. The boys were not permitted to go to school, neither were they paid for their work. They were literally kept in slàvery, earning nothing despite thousands of people who paid to see them. Their only rewards were clownish attire they wore for the shows and food meant to keep the ‘assets’ alive.

One of their owners had found that George and Willie harboured the ability to play any song on almost any instrument, from the xylophone to the saxophone and mandolin, and that made them even more famous and more valuable ‘assets’ to owners of travelling circuses. However, after all this time, their illitèrate mother had not ceased looking for her boys.

In the fall of 1927, the brothers were on a tour with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey to Roanoke, little did the boys know they were coming home from which they had disàppeared nearly three decades back. It came to their mother’s attention that the Greatest Show On Earth are performing by her own sons.

In 1930, a Hungarian inventor observed children playing with marbles in a puddle, noticing that the marbles left a trail of water in their wake. That's how the idea came about: why not use a ball-shaped metal nib for writing? This is how the pen was born. 🖋 László József Biro shared his idea with his brother György, a chemist, and together they began researching and experimenting to create a new type of pen based on this concept. Finally, they found the perfect combination: a viscous ink and a tip with a small ball that rotated freely, preventing the ink from drying out and controlling its flow. They presented their invention at the Budapest International Fair in 1931 and patented it in 1938, although they did not market it immediately. With the start of World War II, the brothers emigrated to Argentina, where they founded a company in a garage. Although they were initially unsuccessful due to the high cost of the product, they secured a contract with the British Air Force, which boosted their popularity. In 1943, they licensed their invention to Eversharp Faber in the United States for $2 million. In 1950, Marcel Bich acquired the rights and, on the recommendation of an advertising expert, dropped the "h" from his surname and founded the company BICGroup. In that year, they launched the first BIC Cristal, one of the most perfect designs ever created, of which more than 20 million units are sold every day around the world. Since 1953, more than 100 billion BIC Cristals have been manufactured, making it the best-selling pen of all time.

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UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD'S FIRST BLACK WOMAN TRAIN ENGINEER
Edwina Justus (July 11, 1943) is a African-American trailblazer engineer who is best known for being Union Pacific's first black female train engineer.

At a young age, Edwina's role as a change-maker began when she became the first African-American girl to attend Brown Park School, and she was the only person of color in the entire school.

In search of better opportunities, Edwina applied for a job at Union Pacific. After her application was denied, she enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

When she applied at Union Pacific for the second time, her application was a success. Justus began her career at U.P. in 1973 as a clerk at one of its Omaha facilities. Edwina Justus was one of five black women who worked in the Omaha office.

In 1976 she applied for an engineer opening in North Platte, Neb. She got the job and became UP’s first black female engineer at the age of 34. North Platte was a big operation. Union Pacific is the largest railroad in the United States. “When I received the offer in North Platte, Nebraska, my dad encouraged me to take it.”

However, the work environment wasn't supportive. Edwina endured racial slurs and the belief that she couldn't do good work as a woman. But she was not deterred. She used her wit and performance to excel in her career.

Justus worked 22 years before retiring in 1998. She hauled items such as livestock, automobiles and airplane wings to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Denver, Colorado, never taking for granted the beauty of a sunset or quiet night.

“Railroading isn’t easy, but I didn’t let anyone bully me and I always stood up for myself,” Justus said.

In 2018, Justus was honored in a Durham Museum exhibit. The exhibit shares the diverse experiences of 12 Nebraska women through time.