NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Rev. Jesse Jackson led hundreds of people carrying signs and chanting slogans through the streets Tuesday to protest a school drug sweep in which police with guns drawn ordered students to the floor.

"This long struggle must continue," Jackson told the crowd at a rally in front of city hall. "We're going to march again and again and again. They will get bigger and bigger until there is fairness in the land."

"What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" chanted the marchers. "Just Say No to the Police State," read one sign. "Jail Time for Terrorists," read another.

The Nov. 5 raid at Stratford High in nearby Goose Creek drew national attention after video from surveillance cameras showed students ordered to the floor while officers with guns drawn and a drug dog searched them. About 100 students were searched but no illegal drugs were found and no one was arrested.

Goose Creek police have said they believed there was drug activity going on at the school and aggressive tactics were needed to ensure the safety of the officers and other students.

During Tuesday's rally, two Stratford students addressed the crowd.

"The cops burst into the school or the main hallway very aggressively and started pointing their guns at everyone as if we were criminals," said Carl Alexander, a Stratford High freshman. "This isn't right. We need to do something about this."

Senior Tory Richardson fought back tears as she spoke.

"It hurts. My sister still has to go through that school. I don't want her to go through the same that happened - nor do I want anyone else's children to go through the same thing," she said.

The Charleston County Sheriff's Department estimated the crowd at 400, but a count by The Associated Press tallied about 700 people.

Earlier, Jackson told reporters such incidents tarnish the image the New South is trying to build.

"The South deserves better than this. These images and these events keep us in a gutter," Jackson said.

Critics of the raid have objected to the use of force and say it appeared to have targeted black students. Two civil suits have been filed in federal court. State and federal officials also are investigating whether any criminal laws were broken by police.

Jackson spoke with reporters on the last day of a four-day visit to the South Carolina coast.

"We learn to play ball together on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. In Iraq and Afghanistan we die together," he said. "We can live together at home as we die together abroad. ... The South must lead the way with new economic priorities and new economic values."

Nat Smalls, a Stratford student and a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed this week against the school and police, appeared Tuesday on CBS' "The Morning Show."

"I was scared because I thought of Columbine. I thought a student at my school had a gun or something like that. And I thought to run but I didn't because I thought if I ran I would have got shot," he said.

The march was also to protest last month's fatal shooting of a mentally ill black man while in the custody of North Charleston Police. Police said they fired to subdue the man, who stabbed an officer. The officer was wearing a protective vest and was uninjured.