Editing Bronx Zoo (section)

===Ota Benga===
{{Main|Ota Benga}}
[[File:Ota Benga at Bronx Zoo.jpg|thumb|upright|Ota Benga at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. Only five promotional photos exist of Benga's time here, none of them in the Monkey House; cameras were not allowed.<ref name="Bradford Blume 1992">{{cite book |last1=Bradford |first1=Phillips Verner |last2=Blume |first2=Harvey |year=1992 |title=Ota Benga: The Pygmy in the Zoo |publisher=St. Martins Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-312-08276-5}}</ref>{{rp|p=Photo insert}}]]

In 1906, [[Ota Benga]], a man from the [[Mbuti people|Mbuti]] [[Pygmy peoples|pygmy]] ethnic group, was brought to the zoo by the American businessman and explorer [[Samuel Phillips Verner]], and displayed there as an exhibit, though he was allowed to roam the grounds freely. He became fond of an [[orangutan]] named Dohong, "the presiding genius of the Monkey House", who had been taught to perform tricks and imitate human behavior.<ref name="Bradford Blume 1992"/>{{rp|172–174}} The events leading to his "exhibition" alongside Dohong were gradual. Benga spent some of his time in the Monkey House exhibit, where the zoo encouraged him to hang his [[hammock]] and to shoot his bow and arrow at a target. On the first day of the exhibit, September 8, 1906, visitors found Benga in the Monkey House.<ref name="nyt2006">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/nyregion/thecity/06zoo.html |title=The Scandal at the Zoo |date=August 6, 2006|work=The New York Times |last=Keller |first=Mitch |access-date=February 6, 2017 |archive-date=January 31, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131174812/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/nyregion/thecity/06zoo.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Soon, a sign on the exhibit read:
{{Blockquote|The African Pigmy, "Ota Benga."<br />
Age, 23 years. Height, 4 feet 11 inches.<br />
Weight, 103 pounds. Brought from the<br />
Kasai River, Congo Free State, South<br />
Central Africa, by Dr. Samuel P. Verner.<br />
Exhibited each afternoon during September.<ref name="nyt1906">"Man and Monkey Show Disapproved by Clergy", ''The New York Times'', September 10, 1906, pg. 1.</ref>
}}

Hornaday considered the exhibit a valuable spectacle for visitors; he was supported by [[Madison Grant]], secretary of the [[New York Zoological Society]], who lobbied to put Benga on-display alongside [[ape]]s at the zoo. A decade later, Grant became prominent nationally as a [[scientific racism|racial anthropologist]] and [[eugenics|eugenicist]].<ref name="Bradford Blume 1992"/>{{rp|173–175}}

[[African-American]] clergymen immediately protested to zoo officials about the exhibit. James H. Gordon said, "Our race, we think, is depressed enough, without exhibiting one of us with the apes&nbsp;... We think we are worthy of being considered human beings, with souls."<ref name="nyt2006"/> Gordon also thought the exhibit was hostile to Christianity and a promotion of [[Darwinism]]: "The Darwinian theory is absolutely opposed to Christianity, and a public demonstration in its favor should not be permitted."<ref name="nyt2006"/> A number of clergymen backed Gordon.<ref name="Spiro 2008">
{{cite book |last=Spiro |first=Jonathan Peter |title=Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant |publisher=University of Vermont Press |location=Burlington, VT |year=2008 |pages=43–51 |isbn=978-1-58465-715-6}}</ref>{{Rp|47}} In defense of the depiction of Benga as a lesser human, an editorial in ''[[The New York Times]]'' suggested:
{{Blockquote|We do not quite understand all the emotion which others are expressing in the matter&nbsp;... It is absurd to make moan over the imagined humiliation and degradation Benga is suffering. The pygmies&nbsp;... are very low in the human scale, and the suggestion that Benga should be in a school instead of a cage ignores the high probability that school would be a place&nbsp;... from which he could draw no advantage whatever. The idea that men are all much alike except as they have had or lacked opportunities for getting an education out of books is now far out of date.<ref name="Spiro 2008"/>{{Rp|48}}}}

Benga was allowed to roam the grounds of the zoo. In response to the situation, as well as verbal and physical prods from the crowds, he became more mischievous and somewhat violent.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Ken |year=1998 |title=Raw Deal: Horrible and Ironic Stories of Forgotten Americans |publisher=Blast Books, Inc. |location=New York |isbn=978-0-922233-20-5}}</ref>{{Rp|1=Chapter on Ota Benga}} Around this time, Rev. Dr. R. MacArthur of Calvary Baptist Church, was quoted in ''The New York Times'' saying: "It is too bad that there is not some society like the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. We send our missionaries to Africa to Christianize the people, and then we bring one here to brutalize him." Soon, the zoo removed Benga from the grounds.<ref>Quoted by NPR at [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5787947 From the Belgian Congo to the Bronx Zoo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218023934/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5787947 |date=February 18, 2018}}, September 8, 2006, Retrieved May 29, 2015</ref> Toward the end of 1906, Benga was released into Reverend Gordon's custody.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Keller |first=Mitch |date=6 August 2006 |title=The Scandal at the Zoo |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/nyregion/thecity/06zoo.html |access-date=9 December 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Gordon placed Benga in the [[Howard Colored Orphan Asylum]], a church-sponsored [[orphanage]] in [[Brooklyn]] that Gordon supervised. As the unwelcome press attention continued, in January 1910, Gordon arranged for Benga's relocation to [[Lynchburg, Virginia]], where he lived with the family of [[Gregory W. Hayes]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bradford|Blume|1992|pages=191–204}}</ref> While there, Benga received tutoring from Lynchburg-based [[Harlem Renaissance]] poet [[Anne Spencer]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bradford|Blume|1992|pages=212–213}}</ref>

Benga died by [[suicide]] in 1916 at the age of 32.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Delaney |first=Ted |title=Ota Benga (ca. 1883–1916) |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/benga-ota-ca-1883-1916/#heading3 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240806053650/https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/benga-ota-ca-1883-1916/#heading3 |archive-date=6 August 2024 |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2020, WCS apologized for the zoo's treatment of Benga and promotion of eugenics.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jacobs |first=Julia |date=July 29, 2020 |title=Racist Incident From Bronx Zoo's Past Draws Apology |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/arts/bronx-zoo-apology-racism.html |access-date=July 30, 2020 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=July 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730011316/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/arts/bronx-zoo-apology-racism.html |url-status=live}}</ref>