Bronx Zoo officials put Ota Benga on display in the zoo's Monkey House for several days during the week of September 8, 1906 before outrage from local Black ministers quickly brought the disgraceful incident to an end.
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In 1906 at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, there was an exhibit called “The Monkey House”. This was essentially a human zoo.
Bronx Zoo operator apologizes for racist display of African man in 1906. Ota Benga, a Central African man, was put on display in the monkey house in 1906 before Black ministers brought the disgraceful incident to an end, the zoo operator said.
Today, the Bronx Zoo is world-renowned for its large and diverse animal collection, and its award-winning exhibitions. The zoo is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and it is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
In 2006, the Bronx Zoo announced no further elephants would be acquired, a measure taken by other zoos after calls from the public and animal experts stated that elephants do not belong in captivity thus affecting their natural behaviors as social creatures.
Last Monday, the Bronx Zoo officially closed its 111-year-old Primate (Monkey) House, citing a need for change in the ways the animals are exhibited—an evolution, if you will. Responses have revealed how deeply unsettling the closure is to the general psyche of the City, but with few genuinely able to articulate why.
Ota Benga ( c. 1883 – March 20, 1916) was a Mbuti (Congo pygmy) man, known for being featured in an exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, and as a human zoo exhibit in 1906 at the Bronx Zoo.
The Bronx Zoo opened in 1899 and remains one of the largest wildlife conservation parks in the United States, housing 4,000 animals representing more than 650 species.
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