The legendary attorney who was once deemed the “chief counsel” of the Civil Rights Movement by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been honored with a statue outside the Alabama State Bar Association.

The White House says President Joe Biden will present the nation's highest civilian honor to 17 people, including gymnast Simone Biles, actor Denzel Washington and the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, with whom Biden served in the Senate.

The quest by a civil rights pioneer to have her arrest record wiped clean after nearly 70 years after she protested racial segregation has raised the possibility of similar bids to clear the names of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama.