By Abraham Kenmore
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver the keynote speech at King Day at the Dome on Monday, Jan. 15, according to the NAACP South Carolina State Conference, which hosts the annual event on Statehouse grounds honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat who is minority leader in the U.S. House, will lead the interfaith prayer service that traditionally starts the King Day events at Zion Baptist Church downtown. Attendees will then march the roughly half-mile to the Statehouse’s front steps.
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, South Carolina’s only Democrat in Congress, is listed as attending as a distinguished guest. It was Clyburn’s endorsement of Joe Biden ahead of South Carolina’s presidential primary in 2020 that catapulted him to the nomination and, ultimately, the White House.
The visit will be Harris’ second this month as Democrats seek a big win for Biden in the first primary recognized by the national party. The party’s “first in the nation” bus tour across South Carolina launches two days before King Day. Biden, who is expected to campaign here himself as well, faces two extreme long-shot candidates on the Feb. 3 ballot.
This Saturday, Harris is the featured speaker at the 7th Episcopal District AME Church Women’s Missionary Society annual retreat in Myrtle Beach.
King Day at the Dome began in 2000 as a protest against the Confederate flag flying above the Statehouse under the flags of the United States and South Carolina. Legislators passed a law later that year that took it off the dome and put a square version on a 30-foot pole beside a Confederate soldiers’ monument on the front lawn. While smaller, the rebel battle flag was more visible there, and the NAACP never accepted the compromise, which also made both MLK Jr. Day and Confederate Memorial Day permanent state holidays.
It took the massacre of nine people at a historic African American church in Charleston in 2015 for the Legislature to pass a law removing the flag — and the pole — entirely.
King Day has become a go-to event for Democrats vying for the White House.
This year, the focus will be on the importance of voting, according to Brenda Murphy, president of the NAACP State Conference.
The theme is “ballots for freedom, ballots for justice, ballots for change.”
Besides the keynote on King’s legacy, there will also be a voter registration drive, according to the event flier.
Voters must be registered by Thursday to vote in the Feb. 3 primary.
Speeches at the Statehouse are scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon.
Abraham Kenmore is a reporter covering elections, health care and more. He joins the SC Daily Gazette from The Augusta Chronicle, where he reported on Georgia legislators, military and housing issues.
