Journalist Pamela Newkirk on the Astonishing Life of Ota Benga

Rachel Osier Lindley | September 17, 2015

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Award-winning journalist and New York University journalism professor Pamela Newkirk.

The 1904 Saint Louis World’s fair is best known to Birminghamians as the place where Vulcan debuted, before moving to his permanent home on Red Mountain.

But it was also host to a controversial exhibit displaying thousands of humans from around the world. Among them was a young Congolese man named Ota Benga. He was captured by former missionary Samuel Phillips Verne and brought to America for the exhibit.

Benga’s story is the subject of the new book Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga by journalist Pamela Newkirk. She told WBHM’s Rachel Lindley about Ota Benga’s life, and the cultural mindset that led to his captivity.

Newkirk presents a free lecture on Friday, September 18 at 1:30 pm in UAB’s Heritage Hall, Room 102. The lecture is hosted by the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of History and the UAB Institute for Human Rights.