GREENVILLE - Saturday's "Day of Dignity" march and rally through downtown Greenville was hailed as historic, and for some it was.

"I'd say the sit-ins at Walgreen's in the '60s - that's probably the last time we saw something like this," said Steve Simpson of Easley, a soda-shop owner.

He watched an estimated 3,000 people march to the Greenville County Council's offices to protest the council's refusal to make slain civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a paid holiday.

Some estimates put the crowd at 10,000, but law-enforcement officials said there were far fewer marchers.

While Greenville is one of the most populous and prosperous counties in the state, it is one of three counties that do not recognize King's birthday as a holiday. Lexington and Saluda are the others. King's birthday became a federal holiday in 1986 and a South Carolina state holiday in 2001.

Greenville has been a lightning rod for criticism since Republican County Council members last month refused to give King's birthday holiday status, though a study group the council appointed made that recommendation.

"We hope this gathering of the public to show its support for a King holiday will change hearts and minds," said Lottie Gibson, one of the four County Council members who supported establishing a holiday.

Rally leaders the Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the Chicago-based Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and Kweisi Mfume, president of the NAACP, called for a new unity to fight what they called an old but resurgent nemesis in the state - racial prejudice and bigotry.

Mfume, saying that there are two South Carolinas - the one promoted by the tourism industry and the everyday South Carolina - called for the ouster of the eight Greenville council members who voted against the King holiday.

"If you think black people are about to lay down and play dead on their dignity, forget it. It ain't gonna happen," Mfume said.

Some spectators, such as Simpson and his wife, Janice, think King should be honored, but worry about the associated costs. The eight dissenting council members took that position, too.

"I personally think he ought to be recognized, but the economy is so bad," said Janice Simpson.

"I think he was probably one of the greatest people to help his race of all time," Steve Simpson said.

King supporters contend that his push for equal rights benefited both blacks and whites, and also helped pave the way for an industrious New South.

"I think in Greenville, racism just seems to be built in from ages ago," said Josephine McBeth of Spartanburg, who joined the march. "But if we can go to war together and come back home, then why can't we be one? We need to just let it go."

Marchers gave numerous reasons for turning out for the rally, held under a daylong mist and threatening storm clouds.

"I want you to know that Greenville isn't a mirror of the seven County Council members," said Jim Hennigan of Greenville, a white Republican. "If (former President) Ronald Reagan could be at this place in 1986, and I can't be here in 2003, something is wrong." Reagan signed the federal King holiday into law.

Melissa Pearlstone, a Greenville physician, came to the rally and brought her two children, Ethan, 10, and Emma, 8, also for a reason.

"I feel very strongly about supporting the holiday," she said. "I don't want Greenville to go down in history as the one county that doesn't support the holiday. It's also very important for my children to be aware of African-American history."

For Greenville County Council, the King-holiday issue appears to be dead unless council decides to reopen debate on it. One councilman, Scott Case, who opposed the holiday, said the issue will not be taken up again.

But for Jackson, a Greenville native, Saturday's march is the start of a plan to reinvigorate the civil rights movement in the South. "For so long, Greenville has been passive in the face of gross injustice and the Confederate ideology, but now people are coming alive," he said. "We're launching a national movement from Greenville today."

Jackson said he hoped the show of strength would lead County Council to reconsider. "Our struggle for dignity is non-negotiable," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.