Elected officials and Brooklyn residents gathered Sunday evening at Alliance Tabernacle to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of many celebrations around the city this weekend.

There was song, sermons, and even poems to remember Dr. King, who would have turned 95. And speakers like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D), who said while the country had come a long way since King’s death, he hoped the day’s meaning would change.

“One day MLK day will no longer be a day of solemnity," said Schumer, “but a day we celebrate the victory we achieved over injustice in America.”

Pastor Gil Monrose, a faith advisor to the mayor, issued a reminder, however, that Jim Crow wasn’t that far in the rearview mirror.

“In America in the 1960s, one of the most degrading questions to be able to vote was how many jellybeans are in this jar," Pastor Monrose said, showing a jar of jellybeans. "If you could not answer, you could have never voted in the deep South or in America."

The fact that Dr. King helped change that wasn’t lost on the youngest in the audience.

“I think it’s really important for us young people did in the past to get us to this stage today,” said 14-year-old Trinity Falayi who attended the service.

Mayor Eric Adams also spoke about finishing Dr. King’s work, and how he’s helped to do that by bringing down crime and building housing, as well as caring for the thousands of migrants who have come to the city.

“That’s the spirit of Dr. King," said the mayor. "I’m the byproduct of Dr. King. Don’t want to listen to his speeches only, want to finish his speech.”

Many speakers said that, although Dr. King was killed, his dream is still alive and the only real way to kill it, is to not vote.