Ugly law

Ugly laws in the United States arose in the late nineteenth century. During this period, urban spaces underwent an influx of new residents, which placed strain on the existing communities. The new residents were sometimes impoverished. This meant large numbers of people who were strangers to each other now occupied closer quarters than they had in small towns, where such local institutions as schools, families, and churches helped moderate social relations. As a reaction to this influx of people who were impoverished, ministers, charitable organizers, city planners, and city officials across the United States worked to create ugly laws for their community. Helper (1948) even refers to the "insane" people as "pitible nuisance" and remarked that they were allowed in public with no one to care for them. The Chicago ordinance of 1881 read as follows: Any person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated, or in any way deformed, so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, or an improper person to be allowed in or on the streets, highways, thoroughfares, or public places in the city, shall not therein or thereon expose himself or herself to public view, under the penalty of a fine of $1 for each offense (Chicago City Code 1881) Omaha, Nebraska, repealed its ugly law in 1967, yet had an arrest of a person for violating the unsightly beggar ordinance documented in 1974. ==Enforcement==

People charged under the ugly laws were either charged a fine or held in jail until they could be sent to the poor house or work farm. The wording in the San Francisco ordinance indicates violators will be sent to the almshouse. This connects with the Victorian Era poor law policy. In this instance, the man arrested was homeless and the officer arresting him did so under the guise of the ugly law as the man had visible scars and marks on his body. The judge, Walter Cropper, and assistant prosecutor, Richard Epstein, in this case noted there was no legal definition for ugly and criminal prosecution would demand proving someone is ugly. The result was that the city prosecutor, Gary Bucchino, did not file charges. He noted that while the law was still active, this person did not meet the definition. ==Criticism==

Ugly laws prevented some people with physical disabilities from going out in public at all. In 1975, Marcia Pearce Burgdorf and Robert Burgdorf, Jr. wrote about the unsightly beggar ordinances in their newspaper article, "A History of Unequal Treatment: The Qualifications of Handicapped Persons as a 'Suspect Class' under the Equal Protection Clause". In this article, the term "ugly laws" was created and used, having been inspired by the newspaper article title regarding the Omaha arrest in 1974. It was an act of advocacy. John Belluso's play The Body of Bourne has a scene in which Randolph Bourne was confronted in Chicago due to an ugly law. While this is a fictional occurrence, the depiction of the law indicates the impact on disability history. In 1980, while on tour in Europe, a performer with the San Francisco-based Lilith Women's Theatre, Victoria Ann Lewis, delivered a monologue about the difficulty of people with disabilities finding work due to the social idea that people with disabilities should hide or be in the circus. Lewis believed herself to be denied admission to a theater school in New York City due to her limp. She noted they tried to persuade her to take a position behind the scenes. She felt this was due to the ugly laws and that she would not be able to perform in some cities. ==Impact on legislation and policy==

There was a connection between ugly laws and "public hygiene management schemes" such as segregation, eugenics, institutionalization. The ugly laws had an impact on what society considers rehabilitation. "In the rehabilitationist program the aim is in one sense to make disability vanish", to "cause the disabled to disappear and with them all that is lacking, in order to assimilate them, drown them, dissolve them in the greater and single social whole". People with disabilities were not allowed to publicly beg for food or money to support their needs as a person, but it was acceptable to display themselves commercially to beg for a cure or salvation from their disability. ==See also==