Funeral Home Record for Ota Benga

An undertaking company's records show that embalming and hearse services for the funeral of Ota Benga cost $15 in 1916. The record notes that Otto Bingo, as he was commonly called in Lynchburg, committed suicide on March 20 of that year by shooting himself in the left breast. A group described as the "Baptist Ministers Conference, colored" hired a local black funeral home to oversee his funeral and burial.