Gray cited his first case, in which he defended a 15-year-old girl who had refused to give up her seat on a bus shortly before Parks' arrest.

"Actions such as hers paved the way," Gray said. "The civil rights movement did not happen by chance. It took brave and absolutely committed people to see it through."

Gray's own experience is a sort of vindication of this philosophy. He said he made a secret commitment to himself to become a lawyer and "destroy every segregated piece of legislature in Alabama law."

After leaving the state to attend a law school that admitted blacks, he went on to defend Parks and King, and to help to desegregate Alabama.

Despite the many accomplishments of the civil rights movement, several of the panelists used the words, "We still have a long way to go" at various points during each presentation.

"In the U.S. today, we do not even want to be reminded that racism exists. This tells me we don't want to do anything about it," said Abernathy.

She advised students in the audience to be very suspicious of organizations where everyone looks the same and to work to change them. She said they should be particularly careful to choose to live in racially and economically diverse areas.