Bronx Zoo

This guide to the Bronx Zoo returns to September 1906, when crowds packing the grounds weren't gathering around the tigers or elephants but around a man named Ota Benga, a member of the Mbuti people brought to New York by a showman. It follows zoo director William Hornaday's decision about where to place him, in the Primate House alongside an orangutan named Dohong, and the protest that broke out among Black clergymen in the city once word spread. James H. Gordon was among the first to speak out publicly against it.