Laws are supposed to protect us, but from the 1860s to the 1970s, many cities nationwide had so-called “ugly laws.” The name makes it sound like the police were walking around and deciding if people were attractive enough to be in public, but ugly laws were a way to criminalize being poor or homeless and/or having disabilities and disfigurements. And played a part in the racial segregation of public facilities, immigration bans for the “unfit,” and the eugenics movement.
Sources for this episode:
Sources for this episode:
- “The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public” by Susan Schweik
- Grunge
- Medium article by Yewande Ade
- Mother Jones
- PBS
- SFGate
- Wikipedia