4 Children for Sale



4 Children for Sale is a photograph that depicts a mother, Lucille Chalifoux, hiding her head (presumably in shame) as her four children sit unwittingly beneath a sign that offers all of them for sale. The photo was first published by the Vidette-Messenger of Valparaiso, Indiana on August 5, 1948 and was circulated widely during the following week.

After the photo
While it has been speculated that the photo may have been staged, the story behind it was true. All of the children, including the child that Chalifoux was pregnant with at the time the photo was taken, were sold. One of the girls in the photo claimed that she was sold for $2 for bingo money, and others claimed to have been sold and chained to a barn to work as slave laborers on a farm.

Descendants of the children have sought to find their relatives.