Anthropology Days 1904

St Louis, USA. A racist side show at the 1904 Games, now remembered with shame

Overview

Fair organizers staged special contest days in August 1904 for indigenous men recruited from the human exhibitions of the Worlds Fair, with little preparation or explanation of the events, while spectators mocked the results. The men were barred from the main Olympic program. The display, criticized even at the time, is cited as a low point in Olympic history and a marker of the racial science of its day.