Follow us live: SC’s King Day at the Dome
Today is Martin Luther King Day. In Columbia, the holiday celebrating the iconic civil rights leader’s life and legacy is commemorated with a prayer service, march and rally at the State House. Eight presidential hopefuls have said they will attend the festivities: former Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, billionaire businessman Tom Steyer, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. The State newspaper has a team on the ground to bring you details. Follow us live here:
12:50 p.m.
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat, told attendees at the NAACP’s annual King Day at the Dome rally not to rest now that the Confederate flag has been removed from the S.C. State House grounds.
“The flag was only a symbol of something, and that of which it was a symbol is with us today,” Clyburn said Monday afternoon. “We still have a job to do.”
Clyburn called on residents to get registered to vote and to continue to participate even if their favored candidate doesn’t win the Democratic nomination.
“Nobody can afford to get so angry because your choice did not win (that) you stay home,” Clyburn said. “If you stay home in November, we’re going to get (President Donald) Trump back and he is going to continue his foolishness.”
“I’m so glad to be back in Columbia because so much foolishness is going on in Washington,” he added.
12:38 p.m.
Patrick called on voters to build the type of community they want to see.
“Its time for us to use the power we have,” Patrick said. “We can’t go from hope and change to fear and settle for that.”
“No one is coming to save us but us. So, we have to register to vote in the next nine days, and we have to turn out to vote on Feb. 29,” he added, referring to South Carolina’s approaching Jan. 30 deadline for registering to vote in next month’s primary.
Patrick also took a shot at Trump during his speech.
“We’ve got a president who devotes every waking hour to dividing us,” he said.
12:23 p.m.
Klobuchar reflected on the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that “we are tied in one single garment of destiny.”
“When hate and bitter anger are on the rise every day, unleashed by those who sadly know exactly their intent and result, when their hate is directed against one, it’s directed against all of us,” the Minnesota U.S. senator said.
Klobuchar said you could see that hate in the church shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston and in the killing of a woman in Charlottesville during the Unite the Right rally. Klobuchar took a shot at President Donald Trump, who after the Virginia rally initially said that there were “very fine people “ on both sides during the event.
“No, there are not many sides to blame, Mr. President, when one side is the Klu Klux Klan,” Klobuchar said.
12:18 p.m.
Gabbard called Martin Luther King, Jr., Day “one of the most important American holidays because it represents who we aspire to be.”
The congresswoman spokes about King’s views on the Vietnam War, comparing it to the current Middle East entanglements.
“Right now, we are wasting $4 billion every month on war in Afghanistan alone,” Gabbard said. “Yet politicians tell us there is no money for education.”
She vowed to redirect military spending to domestic issues if elected to be president.
12:05 p.m.
Warren began her speech by stating that America is at “a moment of crisis.”
“The economy has been hijacked by the rich and the powerful,” Warren said. “The government has been hijacked by the rich and the powerful. Our democracy has been hijacked by the rich and the powerful.”
Warren called for attendees to vote in the next election.
“While there is a lot that’s broken, we still got our voices and we’ve still got our votes,” Warren said. “And in a democracy, that means we decide what happens next.”
12:00 p.m.
In a speech that mirrored the one he made Monday morning at the Columbia Urban League’s MLK Day breakfast, Steyer called Martin Luther King, Jr. Day “a holy day.”
“Dr. King was a pastor, a reverend, and a great preacher. And he was also an organizer, an apostle for justice and equality,” Steyer said. “We all know he was assassinated for his work. But what we all know is that for all his greatness, and his words, and the light he brought to the darkness of racism and inequality — we face many of the same problems he worked so hard to solve.”
11:54 a.m.
Biden compared the political climate now to the days before the civil rights movement as he kicked off his speech at the NAACP’s annual King Day at the Dome rally.
“Look, some mornings I wake up these days and wonder if its 1920 or 2020,” the former vice president and consistent front-runner in polls of the S.C. primary said. “I hear the voices of violence and intolerance singing a chorus of hate in America.”
“One of the lessons from that moment was that transformative change in this county, sometimes progress in this country runs at our lowest point,” he added.
11:50 a.m.
Sanders began his remarks Monday by calling Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “a nonviolent revolutionary.”
The Vermont U.S. senator compared many of the stances King took before his death to issues that the country faces today, including economic inequality and “endless wars.”
“Brothers and sisters, the legacy of Dr. King is to have courage,” Sanders said. “This was a man who stood up against the war in Vietnam when it was not popular. This was a man who stood up to his own president when it was not popular. This was a man who stood up to the establishment of his time.”
Sanders called on attendees of the rally to come together and “complete the journey” that King envisioned.
11:45 a.m.
U.S. Senate hopeful Jaime Harrison was the first candidate to take the stage at the NAACP’s annual King Day at the Dome event Monday. Harrison told voters they needed to make their voices heard to create change.
“We cannot let the worries of today drown out our hopes for tomorrow,” Harrison said. “When we speak up, we know all to well that there are people who want to silence us.”
Harrison said that is what pushed him to run for the Senate against Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. He urged those gathered to participate in the political process.
“Hope can only take you so far … so we need you,” Harrison said. “We need you to knock on doors. We need you to register voters. We need you to tell friends and strangers alike, hope is coming.”
11:44 a.m.
Virginia Sanders, 77, of Columbia, has come to the King Day events most years. She said the marches gave her hope.
“I knew if we fought hard enough and pushed back harder, change had to come. You can’t be complicit in this world. You can’t sit back and expect things to happen because it’s the right thing to happen. You have to out there working and fighting to make it happen,” Sanders said.
11:15 a.m.
James Gallman, a member of the NAACP’s National Board of Directors, said the winds of racism and the “Confederate mindset” still exist across political bodies in South Carolina as he spoke in front of the state’s capital building.
“One party takes us for granted. The other wants to take us back to the plantation,” Gallman said on the steps of the State House.
Gallman also spoke about the Confederate flag coming down from the State House grounds in 2015 in the wake of a mass shooting at a church in Charleston.
“Yes, at the expense of the lives of many good people of Mother Emanuel Church of Charleston, the flag has come down,” Gallman said. “But the Confederate mindset of many who occupy this house still exist.”
Gallman urged attendees of the NAACP’s annual King Day at the Dome rally to have a voice in government by voting and participating in the 2020 census.
11:08 a.m.
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin kicked off remarks at the event by saying the country is standing at a crossroads in history.
“This is an amazing time and an amazing place,” Benjamin said. “We are facing a fork in the road in the history of this great country, and we know the road we must take.”
Benjamin endorsed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the 2020 presidential race, though Bloomberg will not be appearing on the ballot in South Carolina.
10:50 a.m.
The NAACP’s King Day at the Dome rally kicked off at the S.C. State House with a prayer for unity and peace. The prayer was made by Rev. Jerry Dicks, the pastor at East Camden Charge United Methodist Church.
10:40 a.m.
Marchers at the NAACP’s King Day at the Dome event reached the South Carolina State House, where they will be holding a rally in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.
As they approached the state house, King’s speeches rang out over a loud speaker.
10:17 a.m.
With the presidential hopefuls in the lead, the march from Zion Baptist Church to the S.C. State House began. As rally attendees beat drums and walked ahead of the crowd, marchers and presidential hopefuls linked arms and began the trek to the state capital building.
With posters promoting several different campaigns and a NAACP banner in the front, marchers headed down Columbia’s Main Street chanting and singing.
Adair Boroughs, a Democrat who is challenging U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson for his seat in Congress, also attended the march.
Once marchers with the NAACP’s annual King Day at the Dome event reach the State House, they will hold a rally, where many of the presidential hopefuls attending are expected to speak. Buttigieg left after the march.
10:05 a.m.
King Day at the Dome attendees began arriving at the S.C. State House ahead of the group marching from Zion Baptist Church. Amoung them was Columbia resident Mary Harts, 79.
Harts, who originally backed U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris before she ended her run for president, said she is now considering voting for Biden. She added that one reason she now favors Biden is he served with former President Barack Obama.
“I think he knows how to bring the people together,” Harts said.
Biden is scheduled to speak at the State House during the NAACP’s King Day at the Dome rally late Monday morning.
9:50 a.m.
After speaking at the Columbia Urban League’s MLK day breakfast, Biden, Steyer and Buttigieg met marchers at Zion Baptist Church.
They joined attendees of the NAACP’s King Day at the Dome event as they began lining up to march to the S.C. State House.
At the State House, campaigns set up tents and tables with campaign fliers and posters.
9:30 a.m.
The service at Zion Baptist Church began shortly before 9 a.m.
One of the volunteers at the NAACP’s King Day at the Dome event was Teresa Canzater, 62, of Columbia. She has been a member of Zion Baptist Church for 40 years, and only missed three King Day events.
“It really gives you a sense of what people went through a long time ago. With the voting rights. It makes you (realize) you have an important voice to make your presence know, to support something like,” Canzater said. “Hopefully others will join in and vote.”
“The problem now is we’ve got to invite the younger generation, those who know what we went through, they’re dying out now,” Canzater said. “Now we’ve got to teach the younger generation that is coming along to carry on.”
Rev. Aaron McCoy, the keynote speaker, encouraged people to vote, as they remember a man who led the civil rights movement.
“We have assembled in this place to remember the tireless contributions of a man to make America great,” McCoy said.
“There has to be something better than we have right now,” McCoy added.
9:20 a.m.
Steyer said he still sees many of the struggles Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was fighting against as he campaigns across the United States.
“Every political issue that I see in the United States of America has a subtext that is race,” Steyer told the Columbia Urban League during a breakfast at Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia.
Specifically, Steyer sited issues such as criminal justice, education and air and water pollution.
Steyer was the last of four presidential hopefuls to speak at the Urban League breakfast.
Patrick called for reformers to keep their minds open when it comes to fighting for change. Because you stand for something doesn’t mean you have to hate the other side, Patrick said.
“It’s all about what we do right now to make a way for those who come behind us,” Patrick said.
Buttigieg called for full funding for historically black colleges and universities and a new voting act to tackle voter suppression.
9:04 a.m.
Biden took the stage at the Columbia Urban League breakfast. Biden said America was going through “the second inflection point in the civil rights movement.”
Biden called out President Donald Trump’s racially charged language and his policies such as separating children from their parents at the Mexican border.
“Everything that makes America America is at stake,” Biden told the group gathered at the Brookland Baptist Church.
Biden called voters to work together to vote Trump out of office.
“God willing, we can make four years of Trump an aberration,” Biden said.
8:57 a.m.
Columbia residents gathered with presidential hopefuls at Zion Baptist Church for the kick off of the King Day at the Dome event.
As Gabbard, Sanders, Warren and Klobuchar filed into the front pew at the church, campaigns set up tables outside of the event, handing out donuts and holding political signs.
Senate candidate and former S.C. Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison was seated next to them.
In West Columbia, Patrick, Buttigieg, Steyer and Biden attended the Columbia Urban League’s MLK Day breakfast.
5:00 a.m.
South Carolinians are set to gather outside of the S.C. State House in downtown Columbia on Monday for the 20th anniversary of the NAACP King Day at the Dome, which celebrates the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
What started in 2000 as a protest demanding that the Confederate battle flag be taken down from atop the State House dome has turned into a must-attend event for state leaders and Democratic candidates running for president as they seek to court African Americans, who make up roughly two-thirds of the state’s Democratic electorate.
If you go
8:30 a.m. — The event will kick off with a prayer service at Zion Baptist Church, located at 801 Washington St., near Gadsden Street and Memorial Park.
9:30 a.m. — Marchers, including some candidates for office, will line up. The march will go from the church to the Gervais Street side of the State House.
10:15 a.m. — The program at the State House is slated to begin, featuring 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls: former Vice President Joe Biden; Pete Buttigieg, the now former mayor of South Bend, Indiana; U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii; Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts; U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont; billionaire businessman Tom Steyer and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota will attend the prayer service, her campaign said.
Other attendees will include Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn and U.S. Senate hopeful Jaime Harrison.
Can’t make it?
Online at thestate.com for live updates from the prayer service, the march and the rally at the State House.
On Twitter Follow along with our reporters on the ground: Maayan Schechter (@MaayanSchechter) and Joseph Bustos (@JoeBReporter).
BEHIND THE STORY
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This story was originally published January 20, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
