The Civil Rights Movement was a political movement advocating for the equal rights of black people.
On the first of December, 1955, Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, witnessed by the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan and Graham O'Brien. Driver James Blake called the police, who arrested her. This sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott the following Monday.
According to Ryan Sinclair, the boycott was the beginning of a wider civil rights movement in America, led by Martin Luther King. (TV: Rosa) Petronella Osgood stated that it was "an iconic moment for the cause". (GAME: The Lonely Assassins: Alabama's Blue Box [+]Loading...{"path":"Alabama's Blue Box","1":"The Lonely Assassins (video game)"})
Grace O'Brien was interested in the Civil Rights Movement. She idolised figures such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. She owned a t-shirt that said "The Spirit of Rosa," and upon learning that her future husband Graham was a bus driver, said that he ought not to be like James Blake, who she called "Blake the snake."
Although the Civil Rights Movement greatly reduced the amount of racism in society, Yaz and Ryan believed Rosa Parks' actions on the bus did not solve everything. They believed that in spite of the movement there was still racism in 21st century Sheffield as Ryan said he would be stopped by the police more frequently than his white peers, and Yasmin was called racial slurs and labelled as a terrorist because of her Muslim faith. (TV: Rosa)