About this item
2016 NAACP Image Award WinnerWinner of the 2016 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in NonfictionAn award-winning journalist reveals 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 the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Devil in the White City, and Medical Apartheid.In 1904, Ota Benga, a young Congolese "pygmy" - a person of petite stature - arrived from central Africa and was featured in an anthropology exhibit at the St. Louis Worlds 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 and commanding headlines from across the nation and Europe.Spectacle explores the circumstances of Ota Bengas 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. Using primary historical documents, Pamela Newkirk traces Otas tragic life, from Africa to St. Louis to New York, and finally to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he lived out the remainder of his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 Africa-Americans and the rising tide of political disenfranchisement and social scorn they endured, forty years after the end of the Civil War. Shocking and compelling Spectacle is a masterful work of social history that raises difficult questions about racial prejudice and discrimination that continue to haunt us today.
About the Author
Pamela Newkirk is a journalist, professor, and multidisciplinary scholar whose work traverses history and journalism.Her latest book, Diversity Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Business, examines why, after five decades of diversity studies, training and conversations, many institutions have failed to diversify their workplaces. Her previous book, Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga was completed while she was a Leon Levy Biography fellow. The book was selected as the Best Book of 2015 by NPR, The Boston Globe, and The San Francisco Chronicle; an Editor's Choice by The New York Times and won the NAACP Image Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. [Optional: she is on the journalism faculty at NYU and holds a PhD from Columbia University]
