History

Debra Blackmon (left) was sterilized by court order in 1972, at age 14. With help from her niece, Latoya Adams (right), she's fighting to be included in the state's compensation program. Eric Mennel/WUNC hide caption

This photo, taken at Katherine Tucker Windham's Selma house, shows reporter Nikki Davis Maute — and in the background, some say, the spirit the family calls Jeffrey. University of Alabama Press hide caption

Scene still from Bert Williams Lime Kiln Field Day Project. Bert Williams, Walker Thompson (standing center), John Wesley Jenkins (seated right). In a concession to white audiences, Williams, the lead, wore blackface, but the other black characters did not. Museum of Modern Art hide caption

A depiction of "Gin Lane," filled with sins caused by drunken revelries. William Hogarth/Wikimedia hide caption

The site at Gobekli Tepe, or "Potbelly Hill," on the Urfa plain in southeastern Turkey is believed by some to be the world's first place of worship. This would upend the conventional thought that religion developed as a byproduct of human settlements. Vincent J. Musi/National Geographic Society/Corbis hide caption

"Who are we? That is the big question. And essentially we are just an upright-walking, big-brained, super-intelligent ape." - Louise Leakey Courtesy of TED hide caption

"Even as a paleontologist, I imagine them fighting, I imagine them roaming around; they still fuel my imagination." - Jack Horner James Duncan Davidson/TED hide caption

"It's a story that, in one sense, makes us feel very small and very little." - David Christian James Duncan Davidson / TED/TED hide caption

"When did we originate as a species? How long have we been divergent from each other?" - Spencer Wells Andrew Heavens/TED hide caption