Civil rights lawyer Demetrius Newon, aged 85, went on to serve what Reuters calls 'a historic term as the first black president pro tem of the Alabama House'. He got Martin Luther King released from a jail in Birmingham where the civil rights leader had spent 11 days, only a few months before the 'I have a dream' speech.

Rose Saunders, a lawyer from the area, is quoted as saying: 'He was not a major lawyer for Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., but he worked on individual cases, like when they would get arrested. That generation of lawyers are unparalleled. They were working in the segregated South, using their legal skills to change things. They were at risk of being bombed, attacked and disbarred. He was one of the last.'