The history of civil rights from slavery to civil rights is a bit more complicated. After the end of slavery, the south entered a period called Reconstruction. Under Reconstruction, the south was something of a mecca of equality. It was in the Compromise of 1877 that let Jim Crow laws flourish. The election of 1876 was a bit of a nail-bitter. The Republicans gave up Reconstruction in the south to get the Electors from several of the southern states to vote for Rutherford Hayes in the College of Electors. Intimidation and fear techniques were already in place, but the laws that created segregation almost all come from after 1877.

I think the real turning point was WW2. African American soldiers who returned from fighting overseas, most with incredible distinction, were the advanced guard of the Civil Rights. It's also hard to deny people rights, when they had been willing to lay down their lives for their country. Moreover, Mrs. Roosevelt had made equality part of her personal platform during the war. In the heat of war it's also impossible to keep strict segregation going. There are numerous stories of black sailors and soldiers breaking from their assigned role to fight when their units, bases, ship, etc. were under attack and fighting along side their white counterparts. Many blacks who served were no longer willing to return to farms, and sometimes, the south. With a taste for equality, they began to demand it and it many of the early leadership of civil rights had some link to soldiers who fought in WW2; Medgar Evans, Amzie Moore, and Aaron Henry - to name a few.

The large gap between the abolition of slavery and "full" Civil Rights for minority groups can be traced to a number of things but this topic is staggeringly huge and covers quite a bit of ground. The relative failure of Reconstruction, the institution of Jim Crow, legally and religiously (though racism in Christianity had been developing before the New World was even discovered.) The creation of Eugenics and Scientifically Racist programs, supported by state and Federal governments as well as the continued Segregation of American Society carrying on to this day. Long term racism bred into the very fabric of American society isn't an easy thing to get rid of.

Books you should read for a better understanding of this topic

• Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner

• The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward

• Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch

These three books should give you a decent introduction to the basics of understand racial history in the United States after the Civil War.

Thank you so much for your replies.

It's something I've always wondered about but wasnt sure where to start to find out more.