Africans and other non-Westerners were exploited in American and European sideshows for decades as evidence of Darwinism. These displays were a major attraction at many fairs and shows for over a century, and they probably helped to influence millions of people into accepting the idea of the evolution of humans from a lower primate. Although monetary gain was probably the primary motive, the promoters of these shows deceptively tried to pass off various non-Western peoples as "missing links," or at least as "primitive" humans who were evolutionarily less developed than Westerners. These displays had a significant influence on racial attitudes, and thus became important to movements such as the American Ku Klux Klan. Today, we see this history as a major example of the unethical exploitation of minorities.