OBAMA AT EBENEZER; CLINTON IN HARLEM

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton spent Sunday morning in the black church – Obama at Martin Luther King Jr.'s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta; Clinton at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.


In the church where King launched his career as a minister, Obama took the pulpit and said the country must unite to overcome its problems, reports the Associated Press. He also acknowledged that "none of our hands are clean."


"The divisions, the stereotypes, the scape-goating, the ease with which we blame the plight of ourselves on others, all of that distracts us from the common challenges we face: war and poverty; inequality and injustice," Obama said. "We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics; the wall that we must tear down before the hour grows too late."


The Rev. Calvin Butts of Abyssinian Baptist Church, a Clinton supporter, introduced her at Sunday's service as someone who "has been our friend," before extending his official endorsement.


As dozens of Obama supporters shouted "Harlem for Obama," Clinton's supporters tried to drown them out by shouting "Hil-la-ry!"


Clinton told congregants how pleased she was to be with them on the weekend before the King holiday. She told how she had traveled years ago with her church youth group to hear him speak.


"It was a transforming experience for me," Clinton said. "He made it very clear that the civil rights movement was about economic justice."


Both Obama and Clinton are preparing for Saturday's Democratic primary in South Carolina, the first state where a large number of black voters will participate. Obama needs a win to remain a front-runner in the race for the party's presidential nomination. He won the leadoff contest in Iowa, and lost New Hampshire and Nevada to Clinton.


Obama is counting on blacks to stick with him despite his losing two in a row to Clinton. He lost Nevada despite winning 83 percent of blacks, who made up 15 percent of the total vote. In South Carolina, they are expected to make up at least half the turnout.