LITTLE ROCK — Robert E. Lee's birthday would no longer be celebrated on the same day as Martin Luther King Day under a bill introduced by an Arkansas lawmaker.

Republican Rep. Nate Bell's bill would remove Lee's birthday from the designations of state and school holidays. It would keep Martin Luther King's birthday as a state holiday on the third Monday of January.

Bell introduced the bill Wednesday.

Arkansas is one of three states, along with Alabama and Mississippi, that jointly celebrate King and Lee.

The practice has been criticized by civil-rights advocates who say it doesn't make sense to recognize a black civil-rights leader on the same day as a white Confederate general.