GREENVILLE, S.C. - Confederate flags waved and racial slurs were shouted as the Rev. Jesse Jackson stood his ground for the Greenville County Council to adopt a holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

But the Council had no tolerance for the tense crowd that had gathered and abruptly ended its Tuesday night meeting.

"This thing is getting much too polarized," Jackson said after the meeting. "We were nonviolent and orderly, but we demand to be heard."

More than 500 black people attended their fourth council meeting in a row, urging the members to create a paid holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. This time, however, the group was opposed by few dozen white people waving Confederate flags and signs that called the NAACP "terrorists."

Also, county officials said a mix-up with the public sign-up sheet meant none of the black leaders could speak before the Council.

One person who was called to speak was Butch Taylor, president of the Greenville County Taxpayers Association. He told the Council he did not respect King or Jackson, but kept his comments largely on the economics of the issue.

Then he turned to the crowd and said: "I did not sell your ancestors into slavery, your ancestors sold your ancestors into slavery," and told them to refer to an article in National Geographic as proof.

The Rev. J.M. Flemming snatched the microphone from Taylor. Sheriff's deputies then separated the two and Taylor was escorted to his seat. Henderson asked those not called to speak to sit down, but Jackson refused to sit and more blacks lined up behind him.

Shouting ensued between the two groups and Chairwoman Phyllis Henderson hastily gaveled the meeting closed.

Several arguments ensued in the audience. The Rev. Caesar Richburg told the group of blacks not to be deterred by the signs and shouting: "If we have to go to jail, we'll go to jail tonight."

Jackson calmed the crowd and dispatched his bodyguards to restrain people.

Moments later, County Administrator Steve Stewart ignored the crowd singing "We Shall Overcome" as he pounded the gavel for nearly a minute, saying the meeting was adjourned.

The tension had grown outside before the meeting started, as a crowd of more than 200 chanted, sang, prayed for the holiday.

While the Council has said it would cost too much to give its employees a paid day off, but others had different reasons.

Winston McCuen, a member of the John C. Calhoun Institute for a Free South, marched up and down a sidewalk nearby carrying a Confederate flag with the South Carolina crescent and palmetto and a sign that read: "We want order & decency."

"It's insane to try to establish a national holiday devoted to such a man," he said, calling King "extremely problematic" and Jackson "an outsider."

Information from: The Greenville News