Selma, Alabama - American Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took to separate church pulpits in Selma on Sunday using a civil rights commemoration to battle for support among the country's crucial black electorate.
The two rivals for the 2008 nomination spoke at churches located less than a block apart in Selma, where a seminal march 42 years ago helped turn the tide against racial segregation.
Obama, who hopes to become the nation's first black president, won a standing ovation as he paid homage to the "giants" who led the civil rights movement and called for a younger generation to carry on the cause.
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The son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother, Obama sought to answer sceptics who doubt that he understands the experience of African-Americans.
'How can we rest while poverty and inequality continue to rise?' Obama said the civil rights struggle had had a direct impact on his life, saying it created the circumstances to allow his parents to meet and flout racist conventions.
"Not only is my career the result of the work of the men and women who we honour here today, my very existence might not have been possible had it not been for some of the folks here today," he said at a service at Brown A.M.E. church attended by major figures from the civil rights era.
"So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. I'm here because somebody marched. I'm here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants," said Obama, as an overflow crowd listened outside.
Clinton earned a similarly enthusiastic reception at the First Baptist Church nearby, where she delivered one of the more rousing speeches of her career.
Recalling the courage of those who marched in Selma in 1965 for voting rights, Clinton said that America still faced injustice and that "we have a march to finish".
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