Congress approves Rosa Parks statue

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Congress has sent President Bush a bill calling for a statue of the late civil rights heroine Rosa Parks to be erected in the U.S. Capitol.

Parks would become the first African-American woman to be honored in Statuary Hall.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., the measure's sponsor, said if Bush signs his bill by Dec. 1 the life-size statue could be erected for the 50th anniversary of the date Parks changed history by refusing to give a white man her seat in the front of a Montgomery, Ala., bus.

Parks died in Detroit Oct. 24 at age 92.

She was the first woman to lie in honor under the Capitol dome after her death.