WASHINGTON (AP) – Sen. John Kerry filed legislation Thursday calling for a statue honoring the late civil rights leader Rosa Parks to be erected in the U.S. Capitol’s famed Statuary Hall.

“Rosa Parks sat down so we could stand up, but not so we could stand still,” said Kerry, D-Mass., recalling the late civil rights leader’s refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus – an act that helped spark the civil rights movement. Kerry’s proposal would make Parks, who died Oct. 24 at the age of 92, the first black woman to be represented in Statuary Hall.

However, it is possible another statue in the crowded hall would have to be moved to accomodate the new Parks statue, because the number of statues in the hall collection is limited to 100, two per state.

The Kerry proposal, which mirrors a bill filed in the House last month by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr, D-Ill., gives the Architect’s office two years to erect the statue.

Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Barack Obama, D-Ill., Carl Levin, D-Mich., Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Jon Corzine, D-N.J., are also bill co-sponsors.

AP-ES-11-03-05 1825EST