Civil rights warriors re-enlist for march

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"I thought all of this would be over by now," he said.

Saturday's "dignity march" in Greenville brought back many old civil rights warriors and baptized a new generation.

Furman freshman Travis Robinson from Jamaica said, "I was actually surprised that there were areas of the U.S. that didn't support Martin Luther King Day. If it weren't for Martin Luther King Jr., I wouldn't even be here."

T.C. Smith, a white retired Furman religion professor, marched in the violent Selma protest in 1965 and once was shot at on a train. A thin jacket and fishing hat kept a misting rain off his 87-year-old body.

"We shouldn't still be doing this, but we are. I can't see why the County Council is so opposed to this," he said.

Downs wore a blue Sterling High School sun visor — he graduated in 1961. He said that like Smith, he can't believe honoring King is so controversial.

"It's not about honoring King as an individual, but honoring his work," he said. "They seem to think we are honoring King like he was Jesus Christ and never made a mistake in his life. However, the movement was beneficial not only to the blacks but to the nation."

"I never considered King a god. I don't consider Jesse a god," Downs said. "But I consider some of the work they do as beneficial to blacks and whites. Nobody is perfect."