After flooding County Council meetings for months, supporters of a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in Greenville County will take to the streets Saturday.

They plan a one-mile "Day of Dignity" march and rally at the Greenville County Square.

Supporters want a permanent, paid holiday in the county honoring the late slain civil rights leader.

The council has refused to go along -- citing the expense of an added holiday -- despite pressure from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Greenville native.

Joined by hundreds of local residents, Jackson regularly has attended council meetings since late December. He will lead Saturday's march and rally.

Jackson will be joined by NAACP president Kweisi Mfume and television judge Greg Mathis.

Two months ago, Jackson established a Greenville office of his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition primarily because the county refused to recognize King's birthday.

Organizers did call-ins on a local radio station and have fielded regional media inquiries about the rally, they said. City of Greenville special events coordinator Angie Prosser said the group's protest permit estimates 5,000 people may attend the rally.

Organizers say they are optimistic.

"This will be historic. It's never been done before. And this will be significant, because our voices will be heard," said Devita Mathis, a Greenville Rainbow/PUSH Coalition steering committee member.

Greenville is one of three counties in South Carolina that doesn't recognize King's birthday as a holiday. Lexington and Saluda counties are the others.

In April, Greenville County Council rejected a recommendation to adopt a King holiday made by a study panel that it appointed.

Former president Ronald Reagan signed the King holiday into law in 1986. In 2001, South Carolina became one of the last states to observe the holiday.

Several S.C. counties recently have adopted a paid King holiday, including Union, Laurens, Pickens and Edgefield.

The S.C. House has delayed until June a bill requiring that all counties observe the state's 12 holidays, including King's birthday and Confederate Memorial Day.

The King holiday controversy also threatens to spill into York County. There, the Charlotte branch of the National Action Network, a civil rights group, says it will call for a boycott of the county if its holiday policy isn't amended to make King's birthday a required day off. County employees now can choose to take the day off.