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Birmingham Protest

A 17-year-old civil rights demonstrator, defying an anti-parade ordinance of Birmingham, Ala., is attacked by a police dog on May 3, 1963. On the afternoon of May 4, 1963, during a meeting at the White House with members of a political group, President John F. Kennedy discussed this photo, which had appeared on the front page of that day’s New York Times. (Photo: Bill Hudson/AP)

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(FILES) US civil rights leader Martin Lu

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledges the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

3/18

Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, addresses marchers during his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Aug. 28, 1963. (Photo: AP)

4/18

Black Students Integrate Little Rock’s Central High School

Students of Central High School shout insults at Elizabeth Eckford as she calmly marches down to a line of National Guardsmen, who blocked the main entrance and would not let her enter the school, Sept. 4, 1957, in Little Rock, Ark. (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images)

5/18

Rosa Parks Riding the Bus

Rosa Parks is shown sitting at the front of a Montgomery Area Transit System bus. Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus on Dec. 1, 1955, and ignited the boycott that led to a federal court ruling against segregation in public transportation. (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images)

6/18

Demonstrations and Riots NYC 1963

Police prepare to lift Mineral Bramletter from Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) demonstrators in Brooklyn borough of New York, July 10, 1963. The group was attempting to stop a cement truck from entering a hospital construction site. The protest stems from the alleged ratio of African Americans employed on the job. Police removed the demonstrators and the cement truck entered the project. (Photo: Robert L. Greger/AP)

7/18

Voting Rights March

Civil rights advocates join arms as they participate in a five-day march from Selma, Ala., to the state capital in Montgomery. (Photo: William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images)

8/18

Assassination Of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Civil rights leaders including Dr. Ralph Abernathy and Jesse Jackson stand on the balcony of Lorraine motel and point in the direction of gun shots that killed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn. (Photo: Joseph Louw/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

9/18

Sarah Jean Collins

Bomb-blast victim Sarah Jean Collins, 12, is shown in the hospital in this 1963 photo. A dynamite explosion in the basement of church blinded her and killed her sister and three other girls as her Sunday school class was ending. (Photo: Frank Dandridge/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

10/18

Emmett Till

Emmett Louis Till is shown in this undated photo. Till’s weighted-down body was found in the Tallahatchie River near the Delta community of Money, Miss., August 31, 1955. Local residents Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam were accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering Till for allegedly whistling at Bryant’s wife. (Photo: Bettmann/Gatty Images)

11/18

Soldiers at Civil Rights Protest

A Tennessee National Guard squad lines Beale Street in Memphis, Tenn., as civil rights advocates march on March 30, 1968. (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images)

12/18

SEGREGATIONISTS ATTACK BLACKS

the St. Augustine Beach, Fla., June 25, 1964. Police moved in and broke up the fighting between the segregationist and civil rights demonstrators, arresting a number of people. (Photo: AP)

13/18

Black Students Sitting-In at Woolworth’s

North Carolina A & T students are shown at the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter reserved for white customers during a sit-in protest, in Greensboro, N.C., Feb., 1960.

14/18

Malcolm X at a Harlem Civil Rights Rally

Civil rights leader Malcolm X addresses a rally in support of desegregation, May 14, 1963, in the Harlem section of New York. (Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

15/18

Freedom Riders Near Burning Bus

A Freedom Rider bus goes up in flames in May 1961, when a firebomb 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. (Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images)

16/18

Civil Rights Bill

President Lyndon B. Johnson reaches to shake hands with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after presenting the civil rights leader with one of the 72 pens used to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Washington, July 2, 1964. (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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Civil rights

Firefighters turn their hoses full force on civil rights demonstrators, July 15, 1963, in Birmingham, Ala. (Bill Hudson/AP)

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1968 Olympic Games Mexico City, Mexico. Men’s 200 Metres Final. USA gold medallist Tommie Smith (C) and bronze medallist John Carlos give the black power salutes as an anti-racial protest as they stand on the podium with Australian silver medallist Peter

Extending gloved hands skyward in racial protest, U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, center, and John Carlos stare downward during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner after Smith received the gold and Carlos the bronze for the 200-meter run at the Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, Oct. 16, 1968. Australian silver medalist Peter Norman is at left. (Photo: Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images)