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The Rev. Jesse Jackson backed off his earlier call for a financial boycott of Columbus, Ga., over its handling of the fatal shooting of a black motorist. The civil rights leader caught some local activists off guard last month when he called for people across the country to pull their money out of financial institutions based the city until the deputy who shot Walker is federally prosecuted and Georgia adopts anti-racial profiling legislation. He now says such a boycott would only be used as a last resort if negotiations fail. "We would hope that that would not be necessary, but that burden is upon the officials, business and corporate executives who live in Columbus," Jackson said in a teleconference from New York. "Hopefully the citizens of goodwill and good judgment in Columbus can make that escalation unnecessary," he added. Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, made the remarks as he discussed two marches he plans to lead Saturday. The first will be held in his hometown of Greenville, S.C., urging county officials to honor Martin Luther King Jr. with a paid holiday for workers. The federal holiday is celebrated on the third Monday of January and Greenville is the only county in South Carolina without a King holiday. "The citizens of that state must roundly renounce what did happen and what is now becoming a pattern in Columbus," Jackson said. "I'm convinced that the political leadership and corporate leadership can join us in demanding that the man who killed Kenneth Walker face justice." But some activists, including local Urban League President Reginald Pugh, still insist an economic boycott, or even the threat of one, is the wrong way to seek justice in the case. [more] and [more]