The Martin Luther King Jr. annual Day at the Dome commenced Monday, where hundreds of attendees gathered to honor and celebrate Dr. King’s legacy. This year, however, the event included disruptions.

An attendee heckled Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, during a morning service at Zion Baptist Church and pro-Palestine protests began outside where Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the South Carolina State House.

The theme of the MLK Day march to the State House came to light in more than one way: Ballots for Freedom, Ballots for Justice, Ballots for Change.

The annual march put on by SC NAACP started in 2000, and this year was significant for many in the community with Harris and Jefferies as the featured speakers.

Jessica Colombi and Christopher Nance traveled to South Carolina from Cleveland, Ohio. They were only in Columbia for the event, and planned to fly back Monday night. Nance had been to the event the previous year, where his friend, Eric Freeman, was one of the keynote speakers.

“I learned about the historic nature of this march, and the fact that Dr. King was supposed to actually be here, either on the day he was assassinated or the day before,” Nance said. “I think this community made a really intentional decision to recognize the King and holiday because this was literally the place he was supposed to be on the day he died.”

Both Nance and Colombi emphasized the importance of the event starting at Zion Baptist Church.

“The heart and soul of the African American community is the church,” Nance said. “And yet more and more people are disconnected with that tradition.”

Nance and Colombi said they have become concerned about the way some churches have been swayed into “Trumpism,” or pushing conservative politics and policy through religion.

“This is a reminder about not only the importance of those traditions, but especially during this year, where we have yet another unprecedented election cycle where the choices we make will have a significant impact on how our democracy goes forward,” Nance said.

Colombi said as the current zeitgeist has become more extreme, she was looking forward to hearing elected officials who were pragmatic and reasonable in their remarks, she said.

“And so speaking to values around family, community, education, peaceful protest, justice, those are all connected directly to the King holiday,” Colombi said

The church service included prayer and gospel music as well as a heavy emphasis on getting out to vote. Multiple people, including U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, spoke about the importance of the November election.

“Prayer accomplishes much, but prayer can not do it all,” said Clyburn, a Democrat. “Jim Crow became the law of the land by one vote. Don’t you let that one vote be you.”

Jeffries also emphasized the importance of getting out to vote, especially among youth.

“We’ve come a long way but we still have a ways to go,” Jeffries said in regard to social change. “We’re dealing with some folks who want to erase our struggle, erase our journey.”

“Black history is American history,” Jeffries said.

About halfway through Jeffries' speech, someone in the church was ushered out after speaking loudly and yelling.

The group from the church marched to the state house after Jeffries' speech where they were met with more people patiently waiting for Vice President Harris to arrive. Multiple people with the NAACP as well as state Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine spoke about the importance of the day and remembering what Martin Luther King stood for before Harris addressed the crowd.

Gospel music played as the crowd sang to different variations of hymns. Among the humming and swaying, however, horns and yells disrupted from behind the security fence on the front lawn.

A small group of pro-Palestine protesters blared air horns and waved Palestinian flags. They yelled “cease fire now,” as well as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” They held up signs that said “stop the genocide.”

It was only a week after President Joe Biden was interrupted by pro-Palestine protesters when he gave a speech at a church in Charleston.

Some attendees at the State House, however, disapproved of the disrupters.

Melecia Goode, a teacher from Chesterfield, was a part of the choir at the church and marched from Zion Baptist to the State House. She said while the protesters have freedom of speech, she didn’t think today was the appropriate time.

“I don’t think that was a time or place. I don’t think it was necessary,” Goode said.

Goode emphasized the message of continuing to achieve unity, especially in churches so they can serve and give back.

“Today was just a wonderful day to just be rubbing elbows with history. I’m just elated, ecstatic about everything,” Goode said.

Harris’ speech was similar to Jeffries', but focused more on the days theme of freedom.

“For our young leaders, the assault on freedoms is not hypothetical. It is lived experience,” Harris said. “Freedom is fundamental to the promise of America. Freedom is not to be given, it is not to be bestowed, it is ours by right.”

She asked in 2024, where is America in the fight to freedom? She said it is under “profound threat.”

“Were he here, Dr. King would be the first to say: though we have come far, we still have far to go. In this moment, it is up to us to fight…”

Harris then talked about the freedoms that have been taken away, and how the “government should not be telling her what to do with her body.”

“This generation has fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers,” Harris said.

Mary Winstead, a retired social worker and Pamela Burgess, retired from Prisma Health, did not attend the church service but stayed after Harris had spoken to listen to the rest of the event.

“I was particularly influenced by the fact that the vice president was going to be here, and Jeffries,” Winstead said.

Winstead said she didn’t know exactly what had happened during the protests, and was slightly concerned.

But, she said, they have a cause they are standing strong for, and they are using any opportunity where they have an audience to make their concerns heard.

The visit from Harris came less than three weeks before South Carolina’s First in the Nation Democratic presidential primary, on Feb. 3.