NEW YORK (AP) – The day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat at the front of an Alabama bus could become a holiday in New York City.

A group of City Council members is pushing for Dec. 1 to be a citywide holiday where public and private offices would be encouraged to close, and schoolchildren would attend events commemorating the civil rights leader who died last month at age 92.

Parks ignited a civil rights movement when she was arrested for refusing to give her seat to a white man on Dec. 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Ala. The act sparked a boycott of the bus system led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“That was a very courageous act, so we are calling on New Yorkers to have a Rosa Parks moment – sit down for something, stand up for something,” said Councilman Charles Barron.

The resolution passed a council committee Friday and must go before the full council before it is approved.

The state of Ohio also recently decided that Dec. 1 will be Rosa Parks Day, in addition to Michigan, where Parks lived in recent years.

AP-ES-11-18-05 1325EST