Rosa Parks is honored by four states with a holiday, but her home state of Alabama isn't one them.

A state senator would like to see that changed. But legislation introduced on March 6 designating a "Rosa Parks Day" in Alabama "isn't a state holiday," its sponsor said Tuesday. The proposed legislation only allows counties and municipalities to elect to take the day as a full-fledged paid holiday.

"I'm definitely open to (a state paid holiday) or at least maybe, perhaps, sharing a holiday that is already there," said State Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, the sponsor of SB365, which designates Rosa Parks Day for Dec. 1. That day, 63 years ago in 1955, was the date Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to white passenger and sparking a seminal moment in the civil rights movement.

"She should definitely have her holiday," Figures said. "The fact that this happened right here in Alabama, and in Montgomery, she is deserving of it."

The Alabama Senate Governmental Affairs committee approved the Rosa Parks Day legislation without opposition.

"This lets people know who exactly she is and what she did and what a great move it was for her to take a stand for courage," said Figures, the first woman to serve as a majority or minority leader in the Alabama Legislature when, in 2013, she became the Senate's Minority Leader. "To know that she was that woman who refused to give up that seat by taking a stand like that, it's very encouraging for me as an African American woman in the Legislature. I probably wouldn't have ended up in this position were it not for her in taking that stand."

'Legacy celebrated'

Four states have designated holidays to honor Parks. California and Missouri commemorate Parks on her birthday, which is Feb. 4. Ohio and Oregon recognize the day on Dec. 1.

Ohio was the first state to institute a holiday in honor of Parks on the day she was arrested, which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and sparked a 381-day protest that nearly crippled Montgomery's public transit system. It did not end until a federal court ruled on June 5, 1956, that Montgomery's bus segregation was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the decision later that year.

U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, was instrumental in getting her state to declare a state holiday for Parks in 2005, the year in which the civil rights icon died at age 92. It was also the 50th anniversary of her peaceful protest in Montgomery.

Beatty, in a statement to AL.com, said she looks forward to Parks' "home state of Alabama" recognizing her with a holiday.

"Her life and actions on that historic December day more than 50 years ago inspired people across the country and around the world to stand up against discrimination and to work peacefully to create a more just and fair society," Beatty said.

Figures said her legislation was pushed by the 9th District African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) church, which covers all of Alabama.

A March 6 rally was held at the statehouse in support of the legislation, and among those attending was Jack Hawkins Jr., chancellor of Troy University, which operates a museum and library dedicated to Parks in Montgomery.

Hawkins said nearly 1 million people have visited the museum since it was founded in 2000.

Said Hawkins: "I believe Rosa Parks' legacy should be celebrated each Dec. 1 and I fully support the establishment of a Rosa Parks Day not only in Alabama, but in every state."

'True heroine'

Figures said she was unsure how many counties and municipalities would consider a day off on Dec. 1, in honor of Parks. Alabama currently recognizes 12 days as full-fledged state holidays, three of which are in recognition of the Confederacy. The only civil rights icon recognized with a holiday is Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday was enshrined as a federal holiday by Congress in 1983.

In Alabama and Mississippi, King's birthday is a joint holiday shared with famed Confederate soldier Robert E. Lee, whose birthday was Jan. 19.

Alabama also has a state holiday in place to observe Confederate Memorial Day in April (Mississippi and Texas also recognize a similar holiday). Alabama is also the only state that still recognizes the birthday of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America from 1861-1865.

Public offices are closed on the first Monday each June to recognize Davis, even though he wasn't an Alabama native and reportedly only spent a brief time in Montgomery before the capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond, Virginia.

Figures said that Parks is more deserving of a holiday than recognizing "people who stood for division."

Said Figures: "It would be the right thing to do. She would be the first woman to have a holiday ... we don't have a woman (recognized) with a state holiday. I think would definitely be deserving for her and for what she did."

Ansley Quiros, assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of North Alabama, said that any choice for a civil rights icon to celebrate with a state holiday "will be incomplete." She said there are plenty of "good options" that include the late Birmingham minister Fred Shuttlesworth, Troy native and current U.S. Congressman John Lewis, or Montgomery attorney Fred Gray, who represented Parks during her legal battles.

"But if the state is seeking to honor the freedom struggle of the mostly forgotten millions in a single person, Rosa Parks is a good choice," Quiros said. "As a black woman, too, her courage and grace is pretty unparalleled."

Derryn Moten, a professor of history and political sciences at Alabama State University in Montgomery, said Alabama may be on the cusp of realizing King's 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail" when he mused that one day the South will "recognize its true heroines and heroes."

"It seems that Alabama, finally, is recognizing the heroism of Mrs. Rosa Parks," Moten said. "Will there be pushback? Probably. But what morally sane politician today is going to opine what the late Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar did when asked why the city had not honored Mrs. Parks. He replied, 'Why should we? She broke the law.'"