The civil rights movement refers to the series of protests that rocked the usa in the 1950's and the 1960's with black americans mainly led by MLK questing for greater political space,liberties and an end to racial segregation.
Historians believes that the movement seeds were planted by the failure of reconstruction, and specifically the compromise of 1877, that granted the southern states the rights to deal with their colored population in whatever manner it pleased them. Others argues, it was based on the utter racial prejudice that had existed since the medieval ages.