Was a Human Ever on Display at a Zoo?
In 1904 a 23 year old man named Ota Benga was captured in the Belgian Congo with the intent to put him on display as a missing link. Ota Benga was a black man, a Pygmy. After being on display at the World’s Fair for a while, Ota was taken to the zoo in Brooklyn, New York and displayed with monkeys in a cage. Ota was mistreated and captured and put in a zoo only because of the belief in evolution. This happened over one hundred years ago. At the time the reasoning was that if man has evolved from ape like creatures then it is only natural to assume that some races are more evolved others. Since apes have dark skin, it was assumed at the time that the darker the skin the less evolved. Here’s an article about Ota Benga: Ota Benga: The man who was put on display in the zoo!
