Ota Benga

Perhaps the most famous person buried in White Rock Cemetery is Ota Benga (c.1885–1916).

Benga was a native of the Kasai River region of the Congo and a member of the indigenous Batwa or Mbuti people. He came to the United States in 1904 and lived in Lynchburg from 1910 until his death in 1916. The tragic story of Benga’s exploitation and exhibition at the St. Louis World’s Fair and Bronx Zoo has been told in countless books, articles, films, and works of art.

Although he was originally interred in Old City Cemetery on March 20, 1916, strong oral history indicates he was later exhumed and reinterred in White Rock Cemetery. He may have been buried beside Virginia Seminary President Gregory W. Hayes (1865–1906), who was also originally buried in Old City Cemetery and later removed to White Rock Cemetery.

 

Official Virginia death certificate for Ota Benga (“Otto Bingo”)
Courtesy of Ancestry.com

Undertaker’s record from W. D. Diuguid Funeral Director and Embalmer, Book 17, Page 251
Courtesy of Old City Cemetery/Southern Memorial Association

 

Benga is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave inside the chain and post enclosure pictured here:

Dr. Ralph Reavis, Laura Munson, and Rev. Dr. Dibinga wa Said at what is believed to be Ota Benga’s gravesite in White Rock Cemetery, April 23, 2004
Photograph by Ted Delaney