Gen 1:26 refers to the beginning of a people made in the image of god. Now keep in mind, there were people long before adam. Gen 4:8-17 talks about cain killing abel. In verse 17 it starts off by saying "And cain knew his wife". Who is this wife?
those "people" that were created in genesis 1:26 were apes. A lesser degree of man designed in the resemblance and similitude of humanity.
Genesis 1:26
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
man
120 'adam aw-dawm' from 119; ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.):--X another, + hypocrite, + common sort, X low, man (mean, of low degree), person.
image
6754 tselem tseh'-lem from an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, i.e. (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence, a representative figure, especially an idol:--image, vain shew.
likeness
1823 dmuwth dem-ooth' from 1819; resemblance; concretely, model, shape; adverbially, like:--fashion, like (-ness, as), manner, similitude.
1819 damah daw-maw' a primitive root; to compare; by implication, to resemble, liken, consider:--compare, devise, (be) like(-n), mean, think, use similitudes.
Cain being a byproduct of the sexual union between Satan and Eve, began the practice of bestiality by having sex with apes. (knowing his wife/wives)
out of their union formed the ancestor of the whiteman, and the rest of the straight haired nonblack races