COLUMBIA, S.C. • As Americans commemorated Martin Luther King Jr., Democratic presidential hopefuls fanned out across the country to honor the civil rights leader and make themselves heard on the national stage.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., used the holiday to launch a presidential campaign that, if successful, would make her the first woman and the second black candidate to become president.

Former Vice President Joe Biden accepted responsibility for his part in the passage of 1980s legislation that toughened sentences for crack cocaine possession, “a big mistake” because of its damage to the black community.

In a fiery speech in Harlem, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand lashed out at President Donald Trump for inspiring “hate and darkness.”

South Carolina, a critical early-voting state in the Democratic primary, hosted two senators expected to seek the White House in 2020: Cory Booker of New Jersey and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg assailed gun violence in remarks at a Washington breakfast celebrating King’s life. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren denounced what she called the systematic suppression of black voters.

While the Democratic field for 2020 is only beginning to take shape, the year that would have marked King’s 90th birthday gives the party’s prominent members a valuable opportunity to address race and draw a contrast between their own views and those of Trump, whose approach to questions of racial justice has sparked criticism from multiple minority groups since he took office.

After a Martin Luther King Jr. prayer service at Zion Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C., on Monday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., left, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, walk with NAACP President Brenda Murphy during a march to the Statehouse.

the associated press