New Delhi, May 23 -- Rosa Parks, born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1913, became one of the most important civil rights figures in American history. Long before her famous bus protest, she was active in the NAACP and worked against racial injustice in Montgomery. On December 1, 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, an act that helped spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott and became a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Britannica describes her as the "mother of the civil rights movement."

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."- Rosa Parks

The quote appears in Library of Congress/National Library Serv...