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		Newkirk, Pamela.

	Subjects
		Benga, Ota.
		Pygmies -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Biography.
		Pygmies -- United States -- Biography.
		Pygmies -- Crimes against -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
		Mbuti (African people) -- Biography.
		Human zoos -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
		BCALA Awards.
		United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.

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		Newkirk, Pamela.

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		Spectacle : the asto...

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		305.896067 B466n

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		Newkirk, Pamela.
		Benga, Ota.
		Pygmies -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Biography.
		Pygmies -- United States -- Biography.
		Pygmies -- Crimes against -- Congo (Democratic Republic)
		Mbuti (African people) -- Biography.
		Human zoos -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
		BCALA Awards.
		United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.


	MARC Display

Spectacle : the astonishing life of Ota Benga / Pamela Newkirk.

by Newkirk, Pamela.

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Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2015]

305.896067 B466n

Pygmies -- Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Biography.

Pygmies -- United States -- Biography.

Pygmies -- Crimes against -- Congo (Democratic Republic)

Mbuti (African people) -- Biography.

Human zoos -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.

9780062201003 (hc.)

006220100X (hc.)

Alternate title:

Astonishing life of Ota Benga

Life of Ota Benga

xvi, 297 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-297).

Part I. Caged. Gardens of wonder ; The Bronx Zoo monkey house ; Crimes of the Congo ; Hornaday's folly ; Benga's brigade ; Fighting City Hall ; Benga speaks ; Backlash ; Nature's fury ; Deliverance -- Part II. Captured. Samuel Phillips Verner ; Luebo Mission ; Kondola, Kassongo, and Verner's African treasures ; The hunt ; Verner's prey ; The St. Louis World's Fair ; Congo field notes ; Leopold's lobby ; Benga's choice ; A museum most unnatural ; Fondless farewell -- Part III. Free. Weeksville refuge ; St. James ; Southern comfort ; Home ; Free ; Homegoing.

"A little-known and shameful episode in American history, when an African man was used as a human zoo exhibit -- a shocking story of racial prejudice, science, and tragedy in the early years of the twentieth century. In 1904, Ota Benga, a young Congolese "pygmy" arrived from central Africa and was featured in an anthropology exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair. Two years later, the New York Zoological Gardens displayed him in its Monkey House, caging the slight 103-pound, 4-foot 11-inch tall man with an orangutan. The attraction became an international sensation, drawing thousands of New Yorkers. Spectacle explores the circumstances of Ota Benga's captivity, the international controversy it inspired, and his efforts to adjust to American life. It also reveals why, decades later, the man most responsible for his exploitation would be hailed as his friend and savior, while those who truly fought for Ota have been banished to the shadows of history. Pamela Newkirk traces Ota's tragic life, from Africa to St. Louis to New York, and finally to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he lived out the remainder of his short life. Illuminating this unimaginable event, Spectacle charts the evolution of science and race relations in New York City during the early years of the twentieth century, exploring this racially fraught era for African-Americans and the rising tide of political disenfranchisement and social scorn they endured, forty years after the end of the Civil War. A masterful work of social history that raises difficult questions about racial prejudice and discrimination that continue to haunt us today. Author Pamela Newkirk teaches journalism at New York University"--Provided by publisher.

Winner of the BCALA Literary Award for Non-Fiction, 2016.

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