Rosa Parks, whose refusal to move to the back of a bus touched off the Montgomery bus boycott and the beginning of the civil rights movement, is fingerprinted by police Lt. D.H. Lackey in Montgomery, Ala; on Feb. 22, 1956. She was among some 100 people charged with violating segregation laws. (AP Photo/Gene Herrick)

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, left, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., center, and Bayard Rustin, leaders in the racial bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., leave the Montgomery County Courthouse on Feb. 24, 1956. The civil rights leaders were arraigned along with 87 other black activists. Thousands of supporters walked in protest against the mass indictments and arrests. (Associated Press)

This group of youngsters is heading for a downtown Oklahoma City restaurant to hold a sit-in demonstration, Aug. 6, 1960 in an effort to gain equal rights at food establishments. They held a meeting today and then fanned out to five restaurants. The blacks were unable to sit in at any of them but they either stood inside the establishments or near the outside door in temperatures in the 90's. They planned another rally later in the day and promised to boycott the merchants if segregation is not abolished. Similar sit-ins two years won them equal rights at 33 establishments serving food. (Associated Press)

A Freedom Rider bus went up in flames in May 1961 when a fire bomb was tossed through a window near Anniston, Ala. The bus, which was testing bus station segregation in the south, had stopped because of a flat tire. Passengers escaped without serious injury.(Associated Press)

American actor and Oscar winner Charlton Heston joins civil rights protesters picketing a whites-only restaurant in Oklahoma City, Okl., on May 27, 1961. Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing "Ben-Hur" and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, died Saturday April 5, 2008 according to a statement from the actor's family. He was 84. (Associated Press)

Parents of children picket Glenfield Junior High School in Montclair, N.J., to dramatize their effort to improve education for the school's students, 90 percent of whom are African-American, in Montclair, N.J., Sept. 7, 1961. The school board's decision on Aug. 22, 1962 to divide Glenfield's 182 students among the wealthy suburb's three other high schools resulted in a quiet but bitter division among the white residents. (Associated Press)

An unidentified Klansman smiles as he passes out handbills to supporters standing in front of a hotel in Atlanta, Ga., July 4, 1962. The KKK handed out the bills after members of the NAACP began picketing hotels, motels and eating establishments in protest of their segregation policies. In foreground is picketer Glenn Gurley, a civil rights activist and student at the Unvieristy of Michigan, holding a sign urging intergration at Atlanta hotels. (AP Photo/Horace Court)

A patrolman holding a police dog goes after a black demonstrator who swings a small knife at the dog, during anti-segregation demonstrations in Birmingham, Ala., on May 3, 1963. (AP Photo/Bill Hudson)

A police riot tank stands by as an African American housing project is destroyed by fire after rioting, arson and looting erupted after the home of an African American leader and an African American motel were bombed on May 12, 1963 in Birmingham. (Associated Press)

A group of about 150 marchers picket in front of Omaha's Sheraton Fontenelle Hotel during a peaceful demonstration against a 58-member bi-racial committee formed by Mayor James Dworak which held its initial meeting, July 8, 1963. Rev. Rudolph McNair, right, said his group feels the mayor's committee is too large to be effective. At McNair's side is Rev. Kelsey Jones and right behind and between them is Father John Markoe of Creighton University. (Associated Press)

Civil rights supporters stage a peaceful voter registration mass picket of the County Court house in Greenwood, Miss., on March 25, 1964. About 90 black and white picketers paraded in front of the court house while Greenwood police watched. (AP Photo/Bill Hudson)

Civil rights activists stage a peaceful voter registration mass picket in front of the County Court House in Greenwood, Miss., on March 25, 1964. (AP Photo/Bill Hudson)

A police dog and two handlers hold a group of arrested African American demonstrators on, March 31, 1964 in St. Augustine, Fla. (AP Photo/Harold Valentine)

Bertha Gilbert, 22, is led away by police after she tried to enter a segregated lunch counter in Nashville, Tenn., on May 6, 1964. She is arrested on a disorderly conduct charge. (Associated Press)

Civil rights marchers carry flags and play the flute as they approach their goal of Montgomery, Alabama's state Capitol, on March 24, 1965. This is their fourth day in the voter registration protest march. From left to right are, Dick Jackman, New York; Len Chandler, New York, playing the flute; Jim Letherer, Saginaw, Michigan, on crutches; and Louis Marshall, Selma, Alabama. (Associated Press)

Jack Seale, who identified himself as a major in the security guard of the Mississippi chapter of the Ku Klux Klan at Natchez, watches as some 1000 civil rights marchers pass in downtown Natchez, Mississippi, Oct. 30, 1965. Seale said that he and 14 other KKK security guards were on hand to "keep the peace" during the demonstration. (Associated Press)

A highway patrolman leads the way for Benjamin Brown who is being carried by friends after he was fatally wounded during rioting on May 13, 1967 in Jackson, Mississippi. (Associated Press)