Council chair supports 'MLK Civil Rights Day'

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Meanwhile, a group headed by the Greenville County Taxpayers Association, announced it was launching a petition drive with hopes of getting enough signatures to put the Martin Luther King holiday issue on a referendum in 2004.

Phyllis Henderson, chairwoman of the County Council, and Councilwoman Xanthene Norris, who made the motion in October for the county to observe the holiday, called a press conference to try to generate momentum for the council to support recommendations a citizens' committee made Wednesday.

Norris said she favors the first of the two options the committee agreed on — to establish a holiday without taking away any existing holidays.

But she is "open to being objective to the second option," which would move one of three holidays now celebrated on the day after Thanksgiving, the day after Christmas and the Friday before Easter to create the new holiday on the third Monday in January.

Part of the second option calls for the council to adopt a resolution honoring specific civil rights leaders from Greenville, all of whom are deceased, and others who have worked for civil rights, past, present and future.

Henderson, who still opposes creating a new holiday outright, said the second option "represents a fair and reasonable compromise and deserves the support of County Council."

"It addresses the cost concerns of some council members," she said. "And it honors the struggle and achievement of the leaders of the civil rights movement nationally and locally with a day of commemoration."

"This is a solution that I look for the community to come together on," Henderson said. "I do not expect everyone to be entirely happy with it."

As of Thursday afternoon, neither option had the seven votes required to pass, although three council members were either undecided, wouldn't comment or couldn't be reached. Only three, including Norris, who has some reservations, said they support option No. 2. Five oppose it.

Four said they would vote for the first option and five said they'd vote against it.

Paul Wickensimer, chairman of the nine-member, racially diverse group appointed by the council to make a "dual recommendation" on the holiday issue, is scheduled to meet with the council at its next meeting Tuesday at 5 p.m., Henderson said. She didn't know when a vote on the issue might come.

If the Greenville County Taxpayers Association, and those who sign a petition put forward by its president, have their way, the issue won't be decided until November 2004. According to Conway Belangia, the county's director of voter registration and elections, the group would need 30,000 signatures — 15 percent of the county's registered voters — to get a question placed on the ballot.

Butch Taylor, spokesman for the group, said neither of the committee's options are acceptable, and he fears the council will "cave in" on the issue.

"We do not want a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in Greenville County — period," said Taylor, who was flanked by about 15 people holding green and yellow paper signs that read "Let the voters decide" and "No MLK Day" during a separate news conference outside County Square.

He cited questions about King's character as the reason for his opposition.

"The other side has been insistent in their demands. We intend to be just as insistent in our demand," he said. "This is a matter of principle and honor."

Staff writer Jason Zacher contributed to this report.