NAACP reschedules march through downtown Greenville

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Jackson said the new march will be a "national demonstration for freedom, dignity and economic security."

The new march date is May 17 — the 49th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision that struck down legalized segregation.

"Forty-nine years later, we're marching for equal protection and equal opportunities," he said. "The walls have not come down 49 years later."

The march was planned by the local NAACP. Greenville NAACP chapter president Paul Guy said the national NAACP wanted to join forces and have one large march rather than two smaller marches.

This is the second time the march has been delayed. The first date was March 22, but was delayed because of the onset of the war in Iraq. The march was initially a protest of the Greenville County Council's opposition to a holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tuesday night, the County Council refused to reconsider an April 1 vote that would establish a King holiday, but would leave it up to a vote of the employees on whether the county would observe it with a paid day off.

Jackson said there is no route planned for the new march, but the April 26 march was scheduled to go from near Greenville City Hall down Main St. and Augusta Road to County Square.

Greenville Mayor Knox White would not comment.

Jackson said he expects "tremendous numbers" of people at the march, but would not say if any other national civil rights leaders would attend.

"There is unfinished (civil rights) business that must be addressed," Jackson said.