UPDATED at 11:30 a.m. Friday with details on marchers’ meeting with Gov. Jay Nixon.

Gov. Nixon released a statement this morning about his meeting on Wednesday with NAACP President Cornell Brooks and other members of the civil rights organization.

“I was honored to meet with the leadership of our nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization during the march from Ferguson to the capital this week,” Gov. Nixon said in a statement.

“For over a century, the NAACP has been a strong and powerful voice for justice and equality. Through honest dialogue and mutual respect, I’m confident that together we can make meaningful change to address the challenges underlying the events in Ferguson, and build a future of greater peace, opportunity and fairness for all.”

Brooks, for his part, described the meeting with Nixon as productive and cordial. He said the NAACP pushed the governor for a new special prosecutor in the Michael Brown case. The public had no confidence in the grand jury process, Brooks said. The grand jury procedure was closer to a botched criminal trial and a “legal travesty,” Brooks said.    

Brooks also said legislators have the unique opportunity to step up, transforming the region into a model of reform for the rest of the country.  

“Ferguson is not unique. Missouri is not unique,” Brooks said. 

The marchers are about 6 miles away from Jefferson City. They will complete the final stretch today, some of it in the rain.  

UPDATED at 6:00 p.m. Thursday with details from the marchers’ progress.

Marchers said they reached their goal, stopping just 8 miles outside of Jefferson City. Friday, they plan to walk the rest of the way and hold a rally at The Lewis Clark Trailhead Plaza near the Governor’s Mansion at 1 p.m.

Participants said they faced a minimal amount of opposition as they made their way through Linn, Mo. A few stared at the marchers from rooftops, said Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum, a poet from Denver who traveled to St. Louis to participate in the march. Some held signs indicating that they were on the side of law enforcement. But one march supporter in Linn greeted participants with a sign that read, “Black Lives Matter.”

Cornell William Brooks, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and some of his staff, met with Gov. Jay Nixon on Wednesday.

UPDATED at 11:40 a.m. Thursday with details from the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Office.

Marchers were expected to reach Linn, Mo., this morning, one day after encountering a Confederate flag and racial slurs in Rosebud, Mo., said Jamiah Adams of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

She also said a bus window had been shattered. 

Gasconade County Sheriff Randy Esphorst said this morning that about 150 people in Rosebud blocked the road on Wednesday morning in an attempt to block the march. Deputies asked them to clear the highway, which they did and the marchers made their way through town.

He said there was no physical contact between the two groups, as well as no destruction and no arrests. He confirmed the marchers’ reports that one Confederate flag was flown in the town and that chalk outlines of bodies were drawn in the street.

He also said deputies stayed with the marchers as they made their way through the county to the Osage County line until about 9 p.m. No deputies knew anything of a shattered window and marchers had not made a report to his office. He said neither he nor his deputies saw bullets or heard gunshots.

Esphorst said he learned that some marchers believed the window had been shot out through a Facebook post.

UPDATED at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday with reports of marchers’ progress.

Marchers said they faced more opposition earlier today as they approached Rosebud, Mo., with about 100 standing on the sidelines shouting insults.

According to one participant, Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum, one woman yelled, “I would have shot him, too,” referring  to Michael Brown, the African-American teenager shot by Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9.  

Participants also said the number of marchers had tripled to about eighty.

The news today that a New York City police officer had been cleared in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, shocked McFadyen-Ketchum and other marchers.  

“I don’t know if we’ve had much positive feedback at all,” McFadyen-Ketchum said. But that “just solidifies our purpose.”  

Participants in the march, dubbed a “Journey for Justice,” hope to reach Jefferson City by Friday.  

OUR EARLIER STORY:

They started in the very spot that Michael Brown was shot.

Now, marchers who first set out on Saturday, are approaching Gasconade County, hoping to reach Jefferson City by Friday in what they’ve billed as a “Journey for Justice.”

The Lewis Clark Trailhead Plaza near the Governor’s Mansion will mark their final stop where participants plan to hold a rally at 1 p.m. to call for the end of racial profiling in police departments across the country.

Marchers will have traveled 135 miles to deliver that message.

Participants have already braved icy, cold conditions. They’ve also endured jeering, including racially charged insults.

But marchers have also been met with love and support.

Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum, 33, a poet and adjunct professor from Denver, traveled to St. Louis to participate in the trek.

McFadyen-Ketchum wasn’t surprised by the grand jury decision to not indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown on Aug. 9. Still, McFadyen-Ketchum felt “sick and enraged.”

“I didn’t know how to respond,” McFadyen-Ketchum said, noting that he believes the lack of indictment will mean the public will never know the specifics of what happened.

But McFadyen-Ketchum said as an educated white man he’s “always believed that I have to help others, and I don’t know if poetry can do that.”

So he decided to use the profits from his first book of poetry, published in March, to travel to St. Louis.

Despite some rough patches, McFadyen-Ketchum said the journey is going well.

“Our spirits are very high,” McFadyen-Ketchum said.

He noted that onlookers have brought participants coffee, water, hand-warmers and other supplies. Some police officers have given marchers a thumbs up and offered other forms of support.

Of those on the outside still struggling to come to terms with the grand jury decision, McFadyen-Ketchum said: “If they were with us, they would not be disheartened.”

Although there are currently only about 25 marchers heading to Jefferson City, organizers say they expect the crowd to swell to thousands as they reach their destination.

The marchers, led by Cornell William Brooks, president of the NAACP, hope to personally meet with the governor to talk about needed reforms, such as the development of civilian review boards for police.

They also plan to discuss the need for a continued investigation into the killing of Brown and civil rights violations in Ferguson, given what Brooks described as a botched grand jury process.

In St. Louis, approximately 250 originally gathered on Saturday for the march at the Canfield Green apartment complex where Brown was shot nearly four months ago.

Participants are walking an average of 20 to 25 miles a day. Currently, at the end of each day, marchers board a bus and travel back to Washington Metropolitan AME Zion Church in St. Louis to spend the night. The next day, they start anew, gathering where they last left off.

On Tuesday evening, about 40 marchers and ministers ate a home-cooked dinner at the church made by volunteers and took part in a special washing and anointing of feet.

“Even with blisters, our determination is strong to see this …. to the end,” said Rev. Dr. Anthony Witherspoon, the church’s pastor. Even after reaching Jefferson City, he said, “it is not over because we are looking for justice and equality for all.”

At the service, Witherspoon knelt down and washed Brooks’ feet.

“There is healing in our coming together,” Witherspoon said. “When one hurts, others heal. When one is weak, others are strong.”

As they get closer to reaching their final destination, instead of returning to St. Louis, the marchers plan to drive to Quinn Chapel AME Church in Jefferson City to rest.

“We’re hoping it represents the beginning of a rising kind of civic commitment to doing things differently,” Brooks said of the march.

Margaret Gillerman of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.