Posted on Wed, May. 17, 2006

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Oconee County scraps plans to cancel King Day holiday for workers

Associated Press

WALHALLA, S.C. - Oconee County Council has decided to continue giving workers a paid day off for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The move Tuesday reverses a decision made last week. The decision came as some civil rights leaders began to compare Oconee to Greenville County, which had been the lone holdout in South Carolina, but voted in 2005 to add the day to its list of paid holidays.

Greenville County's decision meant King Day 2006 was the first time all 46 South Carolina counties gave workers a paid day off honoring the slain civil rights leader.

"We do not want to begin here again the ordeal of Greenville County. The committee's action was a callus and hasty act," Dwight James, state executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said at the meeting. "The action of the committee reached across the state and nation,"

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Greenville native, led a march and rallies in Greenville County before it decided to observe the King holiday.

Beverly Jenkins, an Oconee county employee and president of the local NAACP chapter, said King Day was for all people.

"It should be a permanent, paid holiday," Jenkins said. "What happened in Greenville, we do not need in Oconee County."

Oconee County's budget committee reversed last week's committee decision to reduce the number of holidays county workers have to five from the current list of 14.

The members unanimously voted Tuesday to accept the same 12 holidays that the state of South Carolina recognizes. The decision reinstates King Day and Confederate Memorial Day but leaves off Good Friday, Election Day and a third day at Christmas.

Committee members said the list of holidays would be in the final version of next year's budget. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for June 6.